Dutch musician's 'racist' comments against Chinese go viral, draw ire

A judge from Holland’s Got Talent, a popular singing competition television programme in the Netherlands, has come under fire for making multiple racial slurs against a Chinese contestant.

In an episode that aired on November 17, Holland’s Got Talent judge Cornelis Willem Heuckeroth, a Dutch singer who goes by the name Gordon, cracked repeated jokes about Xiao Wang, a PhD student in economics and business who had come on the show to exhibit his singing skills in classical music. 

“Which number are you singing?” Heuckeroth asked after Wang explained that he would perform an aria from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto. “Number 39 with rice?”

After Wang’s singing drew cheers and enthusiastic applause from the crowd, Heuckeroth said that the singer’s voice was a “surplise,” mimicking a stereotypical Chinese accent.

“Honestly, this is the best Chinese I’ve had in weeks,” Heuckeroth added. “And it’s not a takeaway.”

Heuckeroth, who also referred to Wang as “the People’s Republic of China,” voted for the 30-year-old to remain on the show as a contestant, but followed this praise with a sideways comment in Dutch that Wang looked like he belonged in a Chinese restaurant.