The fight against Chinese stereotypes
International sportswear giant Nike's latest advert, Chamber of Fear, featuring US basketball star LeBron James fighting off dragons and Asian martial arts masters was banned by the mainland authorities on the grounds that it violated regulations saying that all advertisements aired in China should uphold 'national dignity'.
Ironically, few people would have regarded kung fu icon Bruce Lee knocking down white and black men in his martial arts film Game of Death as humiliating to westerners. Instead, they probably just saw it as good entertainment. But in the latest incident, we are left to determine exactly what 'national dignity' might entail, since the Chinese government gave no further explanation of its decision.
Was it a bad joke that triggered China's inferiority complex, or an unabashed display of the inflated American ego? Or, indeed, was the advert banned simply because of bad timing, as it coincided with the mainland's tightening of state media regulations? (The advert had been playing for more than a month before it was taken off the air). Whatever the reason, the controversy did shed some light on the clash of eastern and western sensibilities in the increasingly global marketplace.
Unlike the reaction from mainlanders, many Chinese American teenagers were happy to see Nike embracing Chinese culture, and excited to see its flashy new billboard with 'Chamber of Fear' written in Chinese characters hanging in New York's Times Square. But, although the advert may enhance cultural diversity in the mainstream American media, assuming that the rest of the world will respond in the same way as the Americans (or Chinese Americans) reveals a narrow mindset. With China's successful entry into the World Trade Organisation, all multinational corporations are now seizing the opportunity to do business with the world's most populous nation. Some entertainment giants are already preparing their strategic invasion of western culture in China by adapting to local practices. One of them, is the Walt Disney Company. In order to ensure a continuous flow of mainland tourists to Hong Kong's Disneyland theme park, which opens in September, it has teamed up with the Communist Youth League of China - which has a whopping 70 million members - to feed Disney stories and western fairy tales to mainland children in reading programmes and after-school activities. Thus, these Chinese children, who will grow up with traditional Chinese fairy tales, will also be familiar with the likes of Donald Duck, Goofy and The Lion King. If a distorted ethnic portrayal is disturbing, the absence of any depiction is equally puzzling. With an exodus of Hongkongers to study in Britain every year, why were there no Asian faces in the last three Harry Potter movies, which were set in Hogwarts, a UK boarding school? The upcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - which will feature its first Chinese character, Cho Chang, Harry's girlfriend - may help address the problem, but we will have to wait and see whether the portrayal hits the mark or not.
The solution to preventing such controversies is to have more Asians or Asian Americans portrayed in the media, so that people can be educated and get a sense of the full spectrum of Asian lives. In this way, when adapting or incorporating Chinese elements into their marketing campaigns in the future, American and other western companies will know better how to avoid creating another Chinese stereotype or caricature.
Ng I-ching is a writer based in New York