BEIJING (AP) – Chinese state television has featured black-faced dancers portraying Africans at a holiday gala for the second time in three years, sparking online criticism as Asia greets the Year of the Ox with deactivated festivities amid borders to contain renewed coronavirus outbreaks.
The show “African Song and Dance” on Thursday came at the beginning of the Spring Festival Gala, one of the most watched TV programs in the world. It included Chinese dancers in African-style costumes and dark-faced drum beats.
The five-hour annual program, which state television said has seen up to 800 million viewers in the past, also included tributes to nurses, doctors and others who battled the coronavirus pandemic that began in central China at the end of 2019.
Holidays, normally the busiest tourist season in East Asia, are being turned off after China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other governments tightened their travel borders and urged the public to avoid large gatherings following renewed outbreaks of viruses.
The Chinese-led Communist Party is trying to promote an image of unity with African nations as developing economies. But China Central Television has faced criticism over the use of the black face to portray African people in past New Year’s shows.
On Twitter, Black Livity China, a group of people of African descent working in or with China, called the broadcast “extremely disappointing.” The Gala of the 2018 Spring Festival of CCTV was noticed, which presented performers in black with a monkey.
“We cannot stress enough the impact scenes like these on the African and Afro-diasporic communities living in China,” the group said.
Elsewhere in China, Buddhist and Daoist temples, which are usually full of holiday worshipers, have been closed. The streets of the big cities were mostly empty.
Visitors gathered in front of the locked gates of the Tibetan-style Lama Temple in northern Beijing to burn incense and pray.
Ji Jianping, who wore a jacket and a face mask in red, the traditional color of luck, said she and her family visited their hometown in northern Shanxi province because of the pandemic.
“I wish safety and health as well as happiness to my family,” said Ji, 62.
The government’s call on the Chinese public to avoid travel is to affect spending on tourism and gifts. But economists say the overall impact could be limited if factories, shops and factories continue to operate instead of the usual two-week break.
The Ministry of Commerce said it had found another 48 million people in Chinese cities planned to celebrate where they live instead of traveling. Departures from Beijing’s two major airports fell 75 percent on Wednesday from last year, the Chinese capital’s government reported.
In Taiwan, traders said this year’s sales increased by 10% -20% as Taiwanese celebrated at home with family dinners instead of traveling abroad.
“Business is good this year. We have even more people, ”said a sausage seller from the capital, Taipei, who would only give his last name, Tsai. “People stay home and prepare food for the end-of-year dinner to share with friends and family.”
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AP video journalist Caroline Chen from Beijing and Taijing Wu from Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to the report.