Understanding Africa
Topic of the day: A very African faux-pas
As the African-China Summit is currently being held in Beijing (45 African heads-of-state are in town for the conference), posters and billboards promoting the summit, Sino-African friendship and Africa as a "land of mysteries and magic" have been plastered all over Beijing's central business district and the East Third Ring Road. I pass these posters everyday, to and from work - blown up pictures of elephants, zebras, and exotic people...all gazing down at unsuspecting pedestrians.
During lunch break one day, I walked pass one such poster with 2 American colleagues. Among a cluster of exotic images, the poster featured 2 hands - one Chinese and one African - that where facing each other, palm to palm. All of a sudden, one of my colleagues said "oh my God!" and stopped dead in her path. I asked her what was the matter and she answered:
"They totally flipped it! The African hand is totally the Chinese guy's hand, flipped, and photoshopped black!"
Sure enough, upon closer inspection, the nails of the African man's hand was completely black, as opposed to normal, fleshy colored nails.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is cultural understanding for you!
As the African-China Summit is currently being held in Beijing (45 African heads-of-state are in town for the conference), posters and billboards promoting the summit, Sino-African friendship and Africa as a "land of mysteries and magic" have been plastered all over Beijing's central business district and the East Third Ring Road. I pass these posters everyday, to and from work - blown up pictures of elephants, zebras, and exotic people...all gazing down at unsuspecting pedestrians.
During lunch break one day, I walked pass one such poster with 2 American colleagues. Among a cluster of exotic images, the poster featured 2 hands - one Chinese and one African - that where facing each other, palm to palm. All of a sudden, one of my colleagues said "oh my God!" and stopped dead in her path. I asked her what was the matter and she answered:
"They totally flipped it! The African hand is totally the Chinese guy's hand, flipped, and photoshopped black!"
Sure enough, upon closer inspection, the nails of the African man's hand was completely black, as opposed to normal, fleshy colored nails.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is cultural understanding for you!
4 Comments:
i saw that too right next to Jian Wai SOHO, how crazy is that i couldn't understand why, but this is china a lot cant be explained here.. :)
http://www.flickr.com/people/brayker19/
Well it's easier to photoshop hands than painting the grass green in winter. Those tree lights on Chang'an Ave. is even uglier!
It was great to see you again. When are you going to share with me the photos from The Orchard? Send me apple sauce!
OOPS!
Haha, I guess the graphic company had no 黑人 friends to offer their hand for a picture, nor the money to pay someone they didn't know!
Good to see another nomad in Beijing!
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