Opinion | Who’s making China look ugly now? Anger over Zara’s ad showing freckle-faced model Li Jingwen only puts Chinese people’s lack of confidence on show
- The overreaction on social media to an advert featuring a Chinese model with little make-up points to the sad reality that despite the country’s wealth and global power, many people still aren’t open-minded or confident enough to see beauty in truth
For those paying attention to China’s social media, it’s hard not to notice that the accusation of “insulting China” has been quite common in recent years. Often, it doesn’t even have anything to do with politically sensitive events or content.
Since the ad “Beauty is Here” was released on Sina Weibo last week, a number of angry Chinese netizens have accused the company of defaming China by depicting model Li Jingwen’s face with little make-up and clearly visible freckles. “You spent such an effort searching for a model with freckles, just like finding a needle in the haystack. How hard you must have worked on this!” one comment read.
And this is not the only recent case. During the Lunar New Year holiday, the well-known America-born Hong Kong movie star Daniel Wu posted a cheeky and unexpectedly controversial greeting, an Instagram post of a picture of a pig with the words “Happy Chinese New Year!!”
