BBC Airs “Chinese Burn” Despite Backlash For Racial Stereotypes
BBC has decided to continue to air Chinese Burn, their latest comedy show about Chinese women in London despite the backlash.
Yennis Cheung and Shin-Fei Chen — who wrote and star in the series — claimed the show would tackle stereotypes about Asian people in Western media.
“This show’s stories are straight-from-the-dragon’s-mouth, no-MSG, authentic.
6 billion Chinese can’t all be Wongs. We are more than the stereotypes. We are varied. We are different.
But our stories are universal, so Brits can relate… mate.”
— Yennis Cheung and Shin-Fei Chen
However, after the pilot aired, audiences begged to differ. Although the show has turned off reviews and disabled comments, audiences shared their takes on Twitter and IMDb.
OMG BBC TV Series Chinese Burn makes me so sick! So Yennis Cheung and the team are trying to elevate their own social worth by enhancing the stereotypes towards Asian?! WTF?!
— Wei 薇 (@Wei_rosa) January 11, 2018
“Not funny at all. Written by a bunch of self hating Asian women who think its OK to degrade their own kind. If there was an option for 0 stars this is what this truly deserves.”
— IMDb user elchinoltd
Chinese Burn is now being shown on BBC One despite the serious backlash they received for perpetuating negative stereotypes of both Asian men and Asian women. They also locked their facebook reviews and hid other negative comments. Completely unacceptable. #chineseburn pic.twitter.com/LkS4Hi98oH
— ヾ(＠⌒ー⌒＠)ノ (@Pandacakeyumyum) January 25, 2018
“I am a Chinese woman who came to the US. to get my Ph.D degree and then stayed here working as a professional.
This type of show disgrace me and my entire ethnicity group. Who on earth do these actresses/producers think they are? Who gave them the consent to represent/portrait the entire Asian population?
It is so shameful and disgraceful that this show was allowed to be casted. Shame on them.”
— maggiehuchina on IMDB
@BBC is pretending the #ChineseBurn backlash never happened. If they were smart, they'd remove the show from their lineup.
Let us remind you how we feel: https://t.co/fBjmmwR6pi https://t.co/CEZaMNDcvQ
— J Maraan (@j_maraan) January 25, 2018
Shin-Fei Chen, one of the writers who also plays Elizabeth on the show, spoke up about the backlash.
“I think for us, we want to – in order to smash stereotypes – you have to offer it up first, and in terms of one of the characters, he’s there to pinpoint Jackie’s racism, because [it happens] sometimes within the East Asian community itself,” she explained.
“She has a white fetish, so he highlights her racism and Elizabeth tells Jackie, ‘Hey, you’re being a racist’.”
— Shin-Fei Chen
You can see the pilot episode here.
