Chinese netizens furious at racist French nursery rhyme
Education authorities in Paris ban use of song after parent publishes video online
A nursery rhyme sung in a French kindergarten has been criticised online for being racist towards Chinese people.
The song, titled Zhang, my little Chinese, was taught at an unnamed school in Aubervilliers, a northeastern suburb of Paris, for more than a decade, China News Service reported on Monday.
Despite its longevity, a row started online after “an Asian parent” posted a video of it on Facebook on December 26, French newspaper Le Figaro reported.
It was not clear who had produced the video. Nonetheless, the furore that followed prompted France’s education authorities to ban the song, the Chinese report said, without elaborating.
The original Facebook post was widely circulated online and picked up by several anti-racism campaign groups.
In China, internet users reacted angrily to the song, which includes lines such as “Zhang squats down to eat rice”, “his eyes are so small, awfully small”, and “his head is swaying like a ping pong ball bouncing around”.