The channel did not offer an apology in its statement.
Hong Kong:
One of Hong Kong’s top broadcasters has aired a TV show with some characters in blackface, just months after an actor was accused of racism for casting him in gray.
Blackface is considered highly offensive and racist in many parts of the world – particularly in North America – but in recent years there have been many skin-darkening controversies in Asian entertainment.
In an episode of the sitcom “Come Home Love,” which aired on Monday, a scene featured a funeral service mimicking the Ghanaian dance moves that went viral on social media a few years ago.
Except, the actors in the show on TVB – Hong Kong’s biggest free TV broadcaster – had their faces painted black.
TVB said on Wednesday that the characters wore “special makeup” for “the plot of the dramatic story”, and that their “faces were dirty from the exhaust gas of a vehicle”.
“It was never our intention to show disrespect or discriminate against any person.”
The channel did not offer an apology in its statement.
It also did not explain why that story was linked to a Ghanaian dancer who is black, and why a play on the meme required blackface.
There was no widespread social media reaction or criticism in Hong Kong regarding the episode.
In April, TVB aired a series in which actors darkened their skin to portray people from the Philippines.
This caused outrage, especially among the city’s larger Filipino community, and TVB apologized.
Even then, there was no wave of criticism locally, and the series received favorable reviews without discussion of the breed.
The Hong Kong government’s Equal Opportunities Commission told AFP that “imitation or disguise cannot and should not automatically be equated with satire, ridicule or discrimination.”
The EOC said, “Having said that, producers and artistes should pay attention to sensitive social issues so that they are not seen as irresponsible.”
Similar controversies have emerged in other Asian countries.
Last year, a Malaysian pop star apologized for using a black woman in a music video that promoted a skin whitening product.
The state-owned broadcaster of Singapore apologized in 2019 for an advertisement featuring a Chinese-origin actor with black skin.
And a long-running TV series in the Philippines also received criticism for darkening three light-skinned actors playing characters from indigenous Eta communities.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)