Malaysian Youtuber Haoren, a 32-year-old released a music video ( MV) on Sunday, It’s actually an advertisement for a skin-whitening product called Snowbebe. The main character was played by Qiu Wen, a popular influencer, who make-up with “brownface”- a schoolgirl with a darker skin tone.
In the MV titled” White Doll”, the scene started with 2 schoolgirls teasing Qiu Wen for her tanned skin. While, Choo played as her secret admirer, left her a few skin-lightening remedies including a cardigan, sunblock, soya milk, an umbrella, and whitening drink sachets.
Two months later, all her schoolmates were shocked over her transformation with a lighter skin tone.
However, the video was taken down after been bashed by netizens. Netizens were fumed and criticizing him for his outdated idea that having fair skin means a mark of beauty.
According to SCMP, the video didn’t gain huge interest as it only has over 190,000 views on Youtube.
Let’s check out some of the fiery responses:
One wrote “This is disgusting, wrong, dehumanizing and stupid. Educate yourself, I don’t [care] if the idea is to show a message,” one Instagram user wrote. “The girl in the video can take off that makeup but [there are people who] deal with discrimination every day of their lives. If you want to highlight that, you wouldn’t do something like this.”
Another wrote: “It’s not OK to make fun of darker skin tones in any way. It’s not OK to use make-up to fake a darker complexion on an actor. It’s not OK to create disrespectful narratives without the creative control and voice of those who are discriminated against.”
Choo apologized and defended the video with a comment on Instagram that said,” I want to clarify that I definitely didn’t mean to offend anyone. It is only because the plot needs the makeup to perform the tanned skin that based on a true story.”
He mentioned he had temporarily removed the MV from his channel and will release an explanation via a YouTube video on Monday.
Some netizens who understand Chinese also criticized him as part of the lyrics sounded like vulgar words, where most parents thought the MV is inappropriate. The children might pick up those vulgar words easily, as a public figure they should have more thoughtful and their act is socially unacceptable.
However, he never mentioned or apologized for the vulgar words in his video.
Info via Oriental Daily | China Press | SCMP | FB