[jcommin]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

But that commercial was never intended to show outside of Mainland China, where it probably plays well. They don't sell that product anywhere else other than in the Mandarin-speaking world, which is PRC, Taiwan and parts of Singapore and Malaysia. Having a bunch of overly sensitive, PC apologists in the US, who are known for looking for something to get offended over, isn't going to make a dent in their sales anymore than our own "ancient Chinese secret" All Tempa Cheer commercials in the 1970 made in China. They are two vastly different cultures and it's the height of arrogance and ignorance to assume that commercial means the same thing in China that it means here.

If you went to a village in the countryside in China and told some girls there that women in the US pay to go to tanning booths, they wouldn't believe you. Having dark skin in China usually means you're a peasant laborer and often treated like a second class citizen when in the cities. So, having even darker skin is, well, worse. And that's where this commercial becomes funny to them, while everyone else just can't believe the overt racism in a culture that has always seen itself as the master race. The Mandarin word for China is Zhong Guo or Middle Kingdom. They still see themselves as the center of the universe. Their word for their language is Zhong Wen - the central language. Everything not Chinese (usually Han, at that) is considered inferior. That's just how it is when you have the world's oldest (still existing) language and culture. It's never going to change and, if they apologize for it, it will only be to placate westerners while they continue to think exactly the same as they always have.

Rick,

I get what you are saying - but you are making excuses. This is a global world. everyone sees everything. In some places/cultures in the world, woman are perceived to be 2nd class. We had "Jim Crow laws" until the 60's. Arabs are taught to hate Jews. I could go on ........... It's all culture - right!