China Central Television (CCTV)

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China Central Television HQ, from China World Trade Centre.jpg

China Central Television (CCTV) is the People's Republic of China's national terrestrial television network. It is open to both cable and satellite television audiences and streams a number of programming from China Central Television Headquarters on East 3rd Ring Road in Beijing.[1]

The Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece, CCTV, was established on May 1, 1958 as a state-owned news and public opinion steering agency. CCTV covers a range of roles, including news distribution, social education, culture, and entertainment information. It is accountable to both the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council as a state television channel.[2]

CCTV has a network of 50 channels that broadcast a variety of programs to over one billion audiences in six foreign languages. The bulk of its services are a blend of news, documentary, social education, comedy, entertainment, and drama, with Chinese soap operas and entertainment accounting for the majority of them.

The CCTV New Year's Gala, also known as the Spring Festival Gala, an annual variety show broadcast for the Lunar New Year, drew international backlash in 2018 for its racist caricatures and a plot line about Africans' appreciation for China.

Plot

Chinese New Year Gala.jpg

The notorious skit starts with an African-themed dance set to Colombian singer Shakira's "Waka Waka" (This Time for Africa). African-style dances of dark-skinned men and "animals."

The Chinese-built railway connecting Mombasa and Nairobi has just opened in the gala's New Year's skit, and a railway trainer, played by the gala's Chinese co-host, compliments a group of African train attendants on their command of Chinese.

CCTV new year gala.jpg

The trainer explains that he's planning to marry his Chinese fiancée later that day, but a young African woman — another train attendant — convinces him to say they're in love in order to avoid a blind date set up by her mother, played by Chinese actress Lou Naiming, who plays a Kenyan mother looking for a husband for her young daughter in blackface.

The groom's older brother makes a joke about African transportation as he returns. “I rented an African public bike [a giraffe] when I got off the plane,” his brother said, referring to an actor dressed as a giraffe.

The African attendant is compelled to tell her mother that she cheated to get out of the blind date when the trainer's Chinese bride arrives.[3]

Why is it Controversial?

The skit aired during the 2018 edition of the CCTV New Year's Gala – also known as the Spring Festival Gala – an annual variety show broadcast for the Lunar New Year that draws up to 800 million viewers.[4]

The 13-minute segment ignited controversy online for depicting an African character with a Chinese actor clad in blackface and giant fake buttocks. Several dozen African performers, a Chinese co-host, and several actors dressed as animals, including a Cote d'Ivoire actor in a monkey suit, were also included in this skit.[5]

Backlash

The skit sparked outrage on social media, with fans from all over the world sharing their shock and indignation. Hansi Lo Wang, a National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent, pointed out the ethnic stereotypes. "Happy Lunar New Year! China’s most-watched TV event kicked it off with blackface & racial stereotypes in a skit about a worker for a Chinese-built railway in Kenya trying to get out of a blind date!"[6]

A Chinese citizen herself express her disgust to the skit by tweeting, "CCTV’s racist show during Spring Gala shook me and made me so ashamed of China and my people. They literally had blackface on stage, had an African actor to play a monkey and a African actress yelling “I love China!” Racism is global y’all..."[7]

External Link

Watch the video at Youtube
13 minutes video at Youtube

References

  1. TV Chinese. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  2. China Central Television. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  3. Solomon, Salem. Chinese New Year Skit Sparks Backlash Over Relationship with Africa, VOA, 18 February 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  4. Wilkinson, James. ‘Racist’ Chinese Spring Festival Gala TV show causes uproar over ‘blackface and big bottoms’, South China Morning Post scmp.com, 16 February 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  5. Solomon, Salem. Chinese New Year Skit Sparks Backlash Over Relationship with Africa, VOA, 18 February 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  6. Hansi Lo Wang Twitter. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  7. Huizit Twitter. Retrieved December 25, 2020.