October 17, 2009

Adorable, confident and genuinely humble, she could be an angel, not only on the stage of TV, but also on the stage of life.

However, when she appeared on Shanghai-based Dragon TV's reality show "Go! Oriental Angel", she became popular overnight and her mixed parentage sparked controversial debate. She is Lou Jing, a 20-year-old student at the Shanghai Drama Academy, and her mother is Chinese while her father African-American. The half-black Shanghainese girl was born and raised by her mother, without having met her father. She speaks standard Chinese and identifies herself with the Chinese culture.

The "chocolate girl" is in the hot spot in several ways. She is a contestant in a reality TV show with large audience. She has dark colored skin quite different from that of typical Chinese girls. Another sore thumb is the fact that her parents never married.

In my humble opinion, she was wrong in making decisions about weather to participate in the show. Remember, our society remains a deeply conservative one. It is natural that when the progeny of such unwed parents was paraded as a celebrity role model, a big bomb exploded in both the cyberspace and the real world. Racism could play a more vicious role in the process. When she became one of the five Shanghai finalists, the color of her skin became a national issue. She also became a target for cruel gossip when her mother talked about her adultery with an African-American on the show. A furious wave of backlash was provoked on the Internet; some contents are insults in reference to her half-black background. The girl defended herself, claiming the negative posting are racist.

Many netizens criticized the mother, sharply blasting her with condemnations related to extramarital affairs, illegitimate children and race. Some public figures have started weighing in, as racism has become central to the issue: "When Americans welcome Obama to the White House, we can't even accept this girl with a different skin color". Most people doubt it would have caused as much a sensation if the mother had had an affair with a white person. In the West, the stigma of color is disappearing for the young people. While older people still carry a lot of prejudice, many young people are cross marrying.

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