Black Face on Chinese TV

To celebrate China’s Lunar New Year, a Chinese television program displayed a Chinese actress in blackface to show its relationship with African countries. Not only was there an actress in blackface along with exaggerated physical features, there was also a man dressed in a monkey suit. This show was broadcasted to about 800 million people. According to the television show, they were showing how proud they were to have relations with African countries. To their surprise, it backfired. Many people were upset with this, including myself. The acts portrayed on that show were very racist. It has always been interesting to me that others do not see how offensive blackface is. Before African Americans could become actors and actresses, black characters were played by whites. They would use things to make their skin dark and perpetuate stereotypes about African Americans that would be fed to the masses. The affects of those stereotypes are still in today’s society. As for the monkey suit, African Americans being associated with monkeys (as in looks) has been another stereotypes pushed by whites in the past. These are very problematic. Imagine how these stereotypes will cloud the minds of 800 million people when they come in contact with anyone who is black. It was also interesting to see how China was trying to celebrate its relationship with Africa as it has always been good. China has been known to do exactly what European colonizers have done in the past, exploit African people for their resources and labor.