One of Hong Kong’s top broadcasters has aired a TV show with some characters in blackface, just months after it was accused of racism for putting an actor in brownface.
Blackface is considered highly offensive and racist in many parts of the world — especially in the US — but several skin-darkening controversies have popped up across Asian entertainment in the past few years.
In an episode of the sitcom Come Home Love aired on Monday, one scene showed a funeral service that mimicked dancing Ghanaian pallbearers who went viral on social media in 2020.
Photo: AFP
Except, the actors in the show on Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB) — Hong Kong’s largest free TV broadcaster — had their faces painted black.
TVB yesterday said that the characters “wore special makeup” for a “dramatic story plot” and that their “faces were made dirty by the exhaust gas of a vehicle.”
“It was never our intention to show disrespect or to discriminate [against] any persons,” TVB said.
However, the channel did not offer an apology in its statement.
It also did not explain why that storyline was linked to the dancing Ghanaian pallbearers, who are black, and why blackface was needed for a play on the meme.
There was no widespread social media response or criticism in Hong Kong over the episode.
In April, TVB broadcast a series in which actors darkened their skin to portray Filipinos.
That caused outrage, particularly in the city’s large Philippine community, and TVB apologized.
Then, too, there was no wave of criticism locally, and the series got favorable reviews with no discussion of race.
The Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission told Agence France-Presse that “imitation or disguise cannot, and should not, be automatically equated with sarcasm, ridicule or discrimination.”
“Having said that, producers and artists ought to take heed of sensitive social issues so as not to be seen as irresponsible,” the commission added.
Similar controversies have surfaced in other Asian countries.
Last year, a Malaysian pop star apologized for using a darkened woman in a music video that promoted a skin-whitening product, while Singapore’s state-owned broadcaster in 2019 apologized for an ad featuring an actor of Chinese origin with his skin darkened and a long-running TV series in the Philippines also received criticism for darkening three light-skinned actors who were playing characters from indigenous Aeta communities.
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