Posted By Isaac Stone Fish Share

A GOP senatorial candidate in Michigan, Pete Hoekstra, ran a Super Bowl advertisement featuring an Asian woman speaking broken English and thanking Hoekstra's opponent, Debbie Stabenow, for her free-spending ways. The ad hit a nerve in America, angering many for its portrayal of an Asian-American woman speaking broken English. The Michigan chapter of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group said it was "deeply disappointed" by the ad, and political commentators criticized it across the board. The 'blame China' ad is becoming a fixture in American political campaigns;  see for example the 'xiexie Mr. Gibbs', or the 'Chinese professor.'

While the woman in the Super Bowl ad wears a hat more often associated with Vietnam, the ad's website, www.debbiespenditnow.com, makes it clear that it is targeting China: Chinese coins, fans, an airplane, and the phrase "The Great Wall of Debt"  decorate the site.

This ad, however, received almost no attention in China. There is scant chatter of it on Sina Weibo or Tencent Weibo, the two most popular Twitter-like microblogging services. The NFL, lacking the popularity that Yao Ming brought to the NBA, is rarely watched in China anyway, and the ads this year that drew any attention were mostly car commercials.

Only a handful of Twitter users wrote about it in simplified Mandarin (the way Chinese is written in Mainland China, unlike the traditional characters which the Debbiespenditnow website inexplicably employs). One who did so is a software engineer working in the Netherlands who tweets under the name lihlii.  "I don't think it's racist," he said in a phone interview. "It's about America losing jobs."

Broadly speaking, there is a whole different idea of political correctness in China. Asking how much someone makes a month within the first minute of meeting them doesn't raise eyebrows in China, and neither, generally speaking, do blanket racial statements, like commenting on the perceived cleverness of the Jews.  On the other hand, questioning Hu Jintao's ability to govern makes for awkward cocktail party chatter.

Those who did object to the ad generally did so in an American context. Michael Anti, a popular blogger who has lived in the U.S. as a Nieman Fellow, wrote on Twitter:

"I think the problem with the ad is that it's racist, not anti-Chinese. As a Chinese I should be amused by this ad, because it seems more like Southeast Asia. But Chinese in America are easily enraged by that sort of prejudicial defamation of the image of a Chinese woman. Also, her English is not the Chinglish of a Mainland Chinese."

So what Super Bowl ads are controversial in China? Last year Groupon ran one featuring actor Timothy Hutton saying: "The people of Tibet are in trouble, their very culture in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry." This ruffled feathers for contravening  state policy and conventional wisdom that Han Chinese are helping Tibet (and for its inaccuracy: fish curry is probably eaten more in Vermont than Tibet). Groupon employees at the time said that the advertisement complicated the company's expansion plans into China, and they eventually pulled the advertisement.

EXPLORE:THUMBS, EAST ASIA, CHINA
 

AJD_NYC

6:42 PM ET

February 6, 2012

Looks pretty racist to me

I think a lot of people in China would have a hard time seeing the ad as racist because they generally haven't grown up in a society where they're a racial minority and constantly subjected to stereotypes and insults.

Being a Caucasian American guy who's lived in China before, I'd say with the utmost confidence that the ad is blatantly racist and xenophobic and plays to long-standing "Yellow Peril" fears.

 

ALFREDYWONG

6:20 AM ET

February 7, 2012

Racist, yes, but not in the way you might think

Being a Hong Kong-raised Chinese person, I'd disagree about Chinese people not being sensitive to stereotypes against Chinese people. Most Chinese have long memories, and any racial epithet dating back to the "Western imperialist" eras (late 19th and early 20th centuries) will cause uproar. Like the article also says, ads about Tibet or the Diaoyu islands or the South China Sea would also cause controversy.

Instead, this ad would seem to many of my friends to be a compliment to China's rising power rather than a slur against China or Southeast Asian countries. We can also see vividly the blatant pandering towards protectionists in America that the ad displays. The view of many rather, to put it nicely, patriotic Chinese would also be of condescension that America wouldn't accept its relative fall against China economically speaking.

 

GREATPET

12:53 AM ET

February 7, 2012

I'm Chinese and fine with it

Putting it plainly, her English is better than most Chinese people who didn't immigrate to America at a young age, so these people won't get the "broken English" part anyway. I only find it hilarious that someone riding a bike near a rice pad is boasting about economy. Besides, as a Chinese I find this ad to be slightly complimentary, as it mocks America's debt problem while China is a big creditor. The above poster could be right that we Chinese are very insensitive to racial discrimination issues.

 

FLOATINGPOINT

1:24 AM ET

February 7, 2012

The Chinese phrases on

The Chinese phrases on www.debbiespenditnow.com look like coming from Google translation. Pete seems having a hard time to find himself a knowledgeable person informing his campaign on Chinese affairs, even though he tries to sell on the China ticket. The actress is certainly an Asian-American, most probably of South-eastern Asian parents.

 

NICOLAS19

4:56 AM ET

February 7, 2012

being offended is an American custom

I don't think it is a problem. Only Americans get offended at the slightest outlet. Whenever some big speech, movie, manifest is happening in or outside the US, one can be sure that someone in America will be offended by it. Best bets are veterans, veteran widows, American mothers, religious communities, homosexual communities, environmentalists, you get the picture. The original source is forced to apologize and there is a big media surge which often originates from no more than some minor, insignificant remark. There are people who simply want to get offended, just to get some attention, airtime, or because they feel that they can only achieve their goals by being peevish.

Now, I'm not Chinese, I'm Central-European, but we don't get offended that easily, either. Take culture for example. For the past century, American movies and books were full of Russians, Germans, Chinese, Muslims, Ukrainians, etc. as villains. Remember the Valley of the Wolves, a Turkish movie about US war atrocities? It was such an injury, even the US Army has issued a statement, labeling the movies dangerous.

 

NICOLAS19

4:56 AM ET

February 7, 2012

typo

*movie, in singular

 

SONGSHU

12:14 PM ET

February 7, 2012

For the record

Anti's point that the "Chinglish" construction isn't reminiscent of Chinese people's English tendencies is a good one.

One reason that most Chinese wouldn't gain exposure to this commercial is that, even for the few who do make the effort to watch the superbowl, due to international licensing agreements they receive the live feed of the actual game but the commercials in between are replaced with ads for domestic products.

 

XTIANGODLOKI

1:28 PM ET

February 7, 2012

The ad is bad for Asian Americans

There is not all that much diversity in China and the concept of political correctness doesn't really exist. Hence there is no reason for them to be racially sensitive.

That said, the ad will only punish ordinary Chinese Americans or new immigrants who have foreign accents. The last time Detroit politicians played racial politics with the Japanese auto manufacturers foreign cars were being smashed in Detroit and a Chinese American auto worker (for the big 3) was killed because his killers thought he was Japanese.

 

SABABA03

1:38 PM ET

February 7, 2012

what a crap.

If I would be in the shoes of Debbie I would quickly respond with the same type of Ad.

Senator may be "DebbieSpenditNow"

Pete is "BorrowSpenditNow"

 

STOGIEGUY7

1:41 PM ET

February 7, 2012

Most Views of this Ad are On-Line

Why? Because the ad wasn't even shown nationally. It was only shown in Michigan. If you live in California, New York or Illinois, you didn't see this ad anyway. It was a local ad aimed at Michigan voters. And there are very few Chinese-Americans in Michigan, relatively speaking

Furthermore, Songshu is absolutely right in that people from outside of the USA (aside from those who can get US NBC affiliates) can't see ANY of the Super Bowl ads anyway. They are treated to very bland, very ordinary spots on one of ESPN's international feeds.

The only reason that anyone knows about this ad is because of the manufactured "outrage" on the part of journalists who repost the ad for all to see. Chinese people won't see this as anything noteworthy and the rest of us who understand what works and what doesn't will see it as very ineffective and amateurish. He could have done better.

 

ANDREADMERCILESS

1:53 PM ET

February 7, 2012

Superbowl ricebowl.

Typical 'yellow peril' ad but with a soft touch. Instead of Fu Manchu, we get Suzie Wong going 'me so richy, me so richy'.
But remember liberal Jewish Hollywood is remaking RED DAWN with yellows invading the US. Hollywood also made RISING SUN, kind of Jap Suss. Hollywood is run by Jews. Since Republicans cannot be 'racist' against Jews and Negroes, they take out their spleen on Chinese and Muslims(and in a way, Jews want it that way since they would rather have American goy rage diverted away from them and diverted to OTHER peoples).

More interesting is the INTERRACIST ad with Eastwood. It begins with a white woman in bed with a black guy. The message is clear. Black man is now the alpha male--as in football--and white women should give herself to the black man(while white man have been reduced to beta-male status). Ads are made by Jews, and the name of the game today is interracism, which means rise of alpha black male and fall of beta-ize white male. Interracism is what will really destroy the white race.

Btw, isn't NFL 'racist' because it's lacking in diversity? It's all black and some white. And most cheerleaders are white. And after the game, it's mostly black players humping white chicks. Where are Mexicans, Muslims, Asians, Latin Americans, etc in football? It be racist!

 

ANDREADMERCILESS

2:09 PM ET

February 7, 2012

Jewish factor is crucial.

Though China is run by thugs and has benefited at American expense, the fact is Suzie Wongs of rice fields did NOT create the New World Order. Mostly American Jews did that. Chinese merely took advantage of the system that American Jews(of both parties)created and profited from than any other people. (Jews are 2% of US population but own 40% of the wealth. 6 million American Jews have more wealth than 1.3 billion Chinese and 1 billlons Asian-Indians put together).
American Jews hate nationalism of white goyim. Economic nationalism in American meant white goy employers and white goy employees in many sectors. But with globalism, many white goy employers took their factories overseas for bigger profits or merely to survive in the NWO. Thus white employers and white employees, who used to be ONE, are now divided. It's the Jewish way of divide-and-rule.

While it is necessary to point out the fact that Chinese have been ripping us off and using the global system to their advantage, we need to ask (1) who created the globalist system (2) who keeps promoting and defending it and (3) who in America have benefited most from it. Jews played a major role in the creation of the globalist system, Jews promote it in WSJ and NY Times, and Jews have benefited most from it. Jews get rich, goyim get poorer. Wall Street and Silicon Valley, both heavily Jewish dominated, have gotten fatter in the last 20 yrs through globalism while many other sectors have suffered. Rich Jews don't give a shit about the white working class, who not only lost manufacturing jobs, but are targeted by affirmative action and section 8 housing(which dumps a whole bunch of criminal black elements into their neighborhoods). Even as Jews get richer and more unequal vis-a-vis the rest of us, they preach and enforce 'equality' on poor white people, who lose more jobs to illegal aliens and get beat up by more blacks.

So, before we focus on the treacherous Chinese, we need to discuss the issue of WHO CREATED THE GLOBALIST SYSTEM. It was not the Chinese. It was the Jews. As long as American thinkers and politicians don't have the guts to confront and deal with that issue, all this 'yellow peril' and 'Muslim terrorist threat' shit won't solve any problem.
Wall Street, Ivy League Schools, big think tanks, top law firms, Silicon Valley, Big media, Hollywood, mega-sports franchises, music industry, porn industry, etc are all dominated by Jews. It's the Jews who've done most to undermine and subvert white power, interests, and survival. It's not the Chinese and Muslims who are exploiting white women as sex meat in porn movies to be humped by black men. Jews are behind it.

PS. Why did the TV network allow this ad in the first place? You see, the Jews who run the media are trying to have it both ways. On the one hand, they allow the ad and play on 'yellow peril' fears. But then, other sectors of Jewish media attack the ad as 'racist'. So, Jews play on 'yellow peril', while at the same time, pretending to be shocked by it.
Thus, Jews play on 'xenophobia' but also wash their hands of it, as if to say, 'THOSE racists did it'. But Jews who control the ad could have chosen not to run it. Why did they? Jews are never to be trusted.

 

BRAVEHEARTNJU

2:40 PM ET

February 7, 2012

i guess

i believe if Chinese concern and protest huge numbers of discrimination on TV, on Movie and other media, Chinese people will have no time to work, make money and China's rise will become a joke. So, the best way is to neglect these self-pleasing discrimination ads and focus on his own work.

in the most of the time, discrimination can not really hurt others but disgrace the discriminators themselves, and it will be more disgraceful when people neglect this discrimination. :)

 

Passport, FP’s flagship blog, brings you news and hidden angles on the biggest stories of the day, as well as insights and under-the-radar gems from around the world.

Read More