A Mercedes-Benz ad on Chinese social media site Weibo has since been taken down after users claimed that the makeup featured on one of the models reinforced the racist beauty standards imposed on Asian women by Western countries, the Communist Party World time reports. The controversy follows an already heated discussion resulting from a similar announcement by a Chinese snack retailer.

Essentially, Mercedes-Benz posted an announcement on its official Weibo account on December 25 that should have been pretty trivial. It featured two models – a male and a female – promoting the new Benz models.

There was just one problem. The female model featured makeup that appeared to create a sidelong eye effect – something Weibo users referred to as Benz reinforcing racist stereotypes about Asian women.

Here is a little more from the article:

The hashtag “The Mercedes-Benz model’s makeup is controversial” gained more than 170 million views on Tuesday, with many claiming that they are not against small eyes but that the model’s makeup is boring and offensive.

“Is there beauty in this makeup?” »A net surfer wrote. “This is not an excessive interpretation. No Chinese will think that kind of “beauty” is attractive, “added another netizen.

Many netizens have mentioned that opinions should not be overstated and turn the issue into a “political trial”, but the fashion world should no longer adapt to Western aesthetics and should align itself with the aesthetic of fashion. Chinese people.

“The premise is that the Chinese cannot let the West shape our aesthetic. For these malicious slanders, we must maintain sufficient vigilance and counterattack, ”wrote one internet user.

The ad can be viewed here.

Westerners have used exaggerated and oblique gestures and makeup to create racist stereotypes about Asians for ages and recent makeup trends including fox eye makeup and the ‘migraine pose, where people pull at their temples to create a strained, sidelong eye – have only heightened concerns about cultural appropriation. The big problem is, while western women embrace Asian beauty standards, Asian women should embrace makeup trends to make them look more western.

Of course, not everyone agrees. In another recent ad, a snack company three squirrels featured a woman whose eye makeup created an exaggerated slant as well as braided hair that some internet users considered racist. The model in this case disagreed with the backlash:

The model, who featured in the ad that sparked public fury at Western stereotypes’ insulting China ‘, wrote on social media:’ Does that mean I shouldn’t be Chinese because I am born with small eyes? His response sparked a new wave of debate.

“I was born with eyes like that. They are even smaller in real life. Does that mean I shouldn’t be a model because I was born with small eyes? The involved model posted on her Weibo account under the name Cainiangniang. “I’m all for patriotism … but it’s a bit morbid,” she added, calling on Internet users to be reasonable.

The concern over Mercedes-Benz advertising stems from the fact that many misrepresentations of Asian culture have come from Westerners, and that seems to be exactly what has happened here.