Chinese ministry’s use of video featuring blackface draws sharp reaction from Indians

A video that a Chinese ministry has posted on its official Weibo account showing Chinese dancers performing in blackface to a popular Indian song is drawing sharp reactions from netizens in both countries.

The Ministry of Public Security, China’s primary policing authority, picked up the video from a popular Chinese video sharing platform called Bilibili, intending to teach about road safety rules.

Posted by the ministry on Saturday, the one-minute clip features a Chinese parodist called Brother Hao on a stationary motorbike; he is wearing a turban and his face is made up heavily with blackface while he imitates Indian dance moves from the 1990s.

In the video, two other Chinese men – also wearing blackface – join Brother Hao on the bike and the group invites three fair-skinned women sitting in the rear of a car for a ride. The women wear blue sequin dresses typically worn by female dancers in Bollywood movies.

The ministry’s Weibo post accompanying the video: “Motorcycle da da da #Police reminder: Seat belts should also be worn in the rear seats. Remember when riding a motorcycle, you can’t go on the road without a helmet!”

Garnering over 190,000 views on Weibo in China, the video has drawn fire from Indian netizens, who have condemned it for racism and demeaning Indian culture.

“They are very much mocking India, Bollywood and Indians”, Aadil Brar, a columnist for ThePrint in India, wrote on Twitter, calling it “insane” that the ministry had used such content.

In another segment of the video posted on Bilibili by Brother Hao, the performers are seen eating at an unsanitary roadside food stall with a man dressed like an Indian woman.

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Another Twitter user commented: “So apparently this was shared by an official Chinese government body for road safety. I’m like whut? How? It’s 2023.”

However, the video appeared not to have struck most Chinese netizens as problematic.

“It’s so magical, I watched it several times”, said one Weibo user, while others posted emojis faces with tears of joy. Another user commented: “laughed to death”.

Some Chinese users took to Twitter to defend the video. They said the song, “Tunak Tunak Tun” from the 1990s, was “monumentally” popular in China and an example of “Indian soft power”.

However, one user contended that only the men in the video wore blackface because “Indian men are regarded as clowns in China but Indian women are regarded as beauties”.

Neither the Chinese ministry nor the Indian government has reacted to the controversy.