中國廣告的種族歧視

中國廣告的種族歧視

一則中國的洗衣液廣告，在西方媒體的轉(zhuǎn)載之下，引發(fā)大量關(guān)于種族歧視的指控。制造商不得不改變幾日前的說法，周六（5月28日）發(fā)表道歉聲明。

測(cè)試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí)：

detergent 清潔劑；去垢劑[d?'t??d?(?)nt]

withdraw 撤退；收回[w?ð'dr??]

denounce 譴責(zé)；告發(fā)[d?'na?ns]

racism 種族歧視；人種偏見['re?s?z(?)m]

discrimination 歧視；區(qū)別[d?,skr?m?'ne??(?)n]

amplifying 放大的['æmpli,faii?]

portrayal 描繪；畫像[p??'tre??l]

exploitative 剝削的；利用的[?k'spl??t?t?v]

beacon 燈塔['bi?k(?)n]

postcolonial 殖民地時(shí)期之后的[p??s(t)k?'l??n??l]

woo 求愛；懇求[wu?]

Jim Crow laws 《吉姆·克勞法》

《吉姆·克勞法》 泛指1876年至1965年間美國南部各州以及邊境各州對(duì)有色人種實(shí)行種族隔離制度的法律。

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Chinese company withdraws detergent advert after racism outcry （438words）

By Lucy Hornby in Beijing and agencies

* * *

A Chinese detergent maker has apologised and withdrawn an advertisement that went viral worldwide for all the wrong reasons.

Shanghai Leishang Comestics’ advert for Qiaobi detergent featured a young Chinese woman popping a paint-splattered African suitor into a washing machine. The machine whirrs away and, to her delight, he emerges as a Chinese man in a sparkling white T-shirt. Picked up by social media and the international press, the commercial was denounced for its casual racism.

In a statement over the weekend, Leishang said it took responsibility for the advert’s content, saying it it strongly shunned and condemned racial discrimination, although it blamed foreign media for amplifying the controversy over the commercial, which first appeared on Chinese social media in March.

“We express our apology for the harm caused to the African people because of the spread of the ad and the over-amplification by the media,” it said. “We sincerely hope the public and the media will not over-read it.”

A company employee known only as Mr Wang had previously told The Global Times, the Chinese newspaper, that the critics were “too sensitive,” and the issue of racial discrimination never came up during the production of the video.

The unwelcome publicity undermines China’s portrayal of itself as a benevolent partner for Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East, free of the exploitative and racist legacy of the European colonial powers.

President Xi Jinping has relaunched a diplomatic initiative that recalls China’s role as a beacon for unaligned countries during the Cold War. Respooling this reading of China as an advocate for poorer countries and an alternative to the US comes after a decade of unprecedented outbound investment in resources and infrastructure.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese diplomats led by former premier Zhou Enlai prided themselves on their ties to postcolonial states in Africa and the Middle East. In the same era, Jim Crow laws in the US barred dark-skinned diplomats from hotels and golf courses, tarnishing Washington’s efforts to woo newly independent states away from allying with the Soviet Union.

The advert was also criticised on Chinese social media after it came to the world’s attention. It was aired in China for several months without comment before being picked up by expats living in China.

Its music and sequences closely resemble an Italian detergent commercial broadcast about nine years ago, but which has a different twist. In the Italian version, a put-upon women doing the laundry late at night stuffs her gawky Italian boyfriend into the washing machine and is delighted when a muscular black man emerges. “Coloured is Better” reads the tagline for Coloreria detergent.

請(qǐng)根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測(cè)題目：

1. Who showed up after the machine whirrs away in the advertisement?

a. an African man with clean clothes

b. a Chinese man with clean clothes

c. a muscular black man with clean clothes

d. a Chinese man with soiled clothes

2. Who were blamed by the detergent maker for amplifying the controversy over the commercial?

a. foreign media

b. Chinese social media

c. African people

d. the design company

3. What is the China’s role for unaligned countries during the Cold War?

a. sunshine

b. space center

c. Right-hand man

d. lighthouse

4. What is the significant difference between the advertisement and Italian version?

a. twist

b. music

c. sequences

d. production

[1] 答案b. a Chinese man with clean clothes

解釋： 在洗衣機(jī)嗡嗡作響之后,洗衣機(jī)里鉆出的這名追求者變成了一名身著白里透亮的T恤的中國男子。

[2] 答案a. foreign media

解釋：該公司將對(duì)這則廣告爭(zhēng)議的放大歸咎于外國媒體。這則廣告是今年3月首次出現(xiàn)在中國社交媒體上的。

[3] 答案d. lighthouse

解釋：中國在冷戰(zhàn)期間扮演的不結(jié)盟國家燈塔角色。

[4] 答案a. twist

解釋：該廣告的背景音樂和內(nèi)容編排與大約九年前的一則意大利洗衣液廣告很相似，但兩者的情節(jié)轉(zhuǎn)折卻不同。這則為Coloreria洗衣液所做廣告的結(jié)束語是“有色的更棒”（Coloured is Better)。