Refer China: Foreign Child Model Accused of Insulting China。。。

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Foreign Child Model Accused of Insulting China...

A six-year-old Dutch child model known as Sofia, who has worked and lived in China for years, has become the center of a public outcry after her parents posted a photograph in which she pulls back the corners of her eyes in an upward slant.

The gesture, widely recognised in the West as a mocking caricature of East Asian features, was uploaded without comment to their social-media account, quickly copied onto Chinese platforms and denounced as racially offensive.

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Within hours the image had drawn tens of thousands of angry messages accusing the family of knowingly insulting the very audience that supports their career.

Although the picture was soon deleted, no apology followed. Instead, the parents uploaded a short video in which Sofia sticks out her tongue and rolls her eyes, a move interpreted by many viewers as a deliberate provocation. Critics who flooded the comment section found their posts erased and their accounts blocked, while the child's representative replied to private complaints with a dismissive "Haha, what's the problem?"

Their confidence was short-lived. The first Chinese children's outdoor brand to employ Sofia issued a statement within a day declaring a "zero-tolerance policy toward any form of racial discrimination" and announcing the immediate termination of all contracts with the family. Competitors in apparel, toys and infant goods followed suit, and the platforms on which the parents had posted closed their accounts after mass reports.

The incident is the third of its kind this year. A major domestic snack producer was forced to withdraw an advertisement in January after complaints that its models' make-up resembled the same stereotype, and Swatch Group apologised and removed global promotional images in August for a strikingly similar visual.

For the moment, Sofia's career in China is over. Industry associations say they will add cultural-sensitivity clauses to standard contracts and require briefings for foreign talent on potentially offensive imagery. Lawyers note that the newly amended advertising law already prohibits content that "insults or discriminates against national or ethnic groups," giving regulators scope to impose fines or ban future work permits if violations are proven.

Source: Sohu