By Daisy CL
Mandap
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| Wong (r) and a promotional poster for the TV series slammed by many as racist |
Philippine
Consul General Raly Tejada has slammed a TVB drama series where a Hong
Kong-Canadian actress put on a brownface to play the role of a Filipina domestic
helper with witch-like ways, shifty eyes and erratic mood swings.
“The
show is downright ignorant, insensitive and totally disgusting,” said Congen
Tejada. “It cannot be denied that the portrayal of the Filipino helper and use
of brownface reinforces negative stereotypes that characterize the “Ban Mui” -
an offensive Cantonese slang.”
“Recent
world events should have taught TVB that it is unacceptable to assign a
corresponding social value to a particular race. No one has the right to mock
and ridicule anyone based on their race and ethnicity.”
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| 'Ignorant, insensitive and disgusting,' says Congen Teada of the TV series |
Filipina domestic helper Shiela Bonifacio, who heads Gabriela Hong Kong, a group formed to protect women's rights, said the TV series smacked of discrimination.
"Pinatitingkad nila ang kulay ng isang tao para ipakita kung anong klaseng trabaho mayroon siya at kung saang bansa siya galing," Bonifacio said. (They highlight the skin color of a person to draw attention to her job and the country she comes from.)
"They should focus more on the problems confronting migrant domestic workers and their contribution and role in Hong Kong society."
Brownface is a social phenomenon largely criticized in which a
white or light-skinned person attempts to portray a "brown" person of
color, but less overtly than the traditional blackface.
Despite the howl raised by many people including local
celebrities over the seemingly racist show titled “Barrack O’Karma 1968,” Hong
Kong media outlets have been all praises for actress Franchesca Wong who played
the role of the Filipina helper.
News outlet HK01 gushed in one article that Wong “put
on brownface to play a foreign domestic worker, but in reality she is actually
a beautiful woman.”
In
another it praised “Wong’s ‘impeccable’ Filipino accent, adding that in spite
of her brownface, the actress “is actually a beautiful woman, with very western
makeup, and looks exactly like a Caucasian girl.”
In the drama series Wong plays the role of Louisa, a
Filipina helper who’s just been hired by a local couple. After she is hired,
strange things start to happen in the household.
The
employers soon find out that Louisa is eccentric, with a perpetually sad
expression on her face, big mood swings and often plays with a rag doll on
which she had drawn a mouth with her own blood.
According to an article written by a local journalist, the show was shot like a horror movie with dim
lighting, discordant
sounds, and spooky special effects, all done deliberately to portray the maid in an unflattering manner.
Wong
had her whole body darkened and changed her accent to play the role. But what
earned the ire of many on social media was a video shared on social media that
showed her darkening her legs, and saying in a fake Filipino accent that she was transforming into another person.
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| Local media say Wong is 'actually beautiful' despite her brownface in the move |
Many people called out TVB on Twitter, saying the show smacked of racism and stereotyping.
Journalist
Katherine Magramo, said: “The underlying racist stereotypes are brutally clear
for all to see. The show depicts Louisa, the Filipino domestic worker, as an
alien “other.” Her identity is distorted
and flattened into a handful of essentialist qualities: dark skin, a comically
fake accent, submissiveness, and “strange” behaviour.
“This is all wrong - brown face, the horrible fake accent,
the "witch" character. You can't hire FDW to play the role because
domestic workers are legally not allowed to engage in other work but there's A
LOT of Filipinos in performing arts in HK you could have casted,” she said.
Another journalist, Vivienne Chow, set off a long Twitter
thread when she posted: “The Hong Kong media is
raving the performance of a local actress painting her face dark to play the
role of a Filipina in a TVB series. I didn’t watch the show (not planning to)
but this just feels so wrong. Why does this still exist in this day and age?
One of those who replied, journalist Mary Hui, said, “Racism,
both overt and covert, runs deep in the city.”
Hui also asked Hong Kong-based Filipina actress Miles
Sible for a comment, and her reply was: “What’s really watched is people who
watched the (TV) series don’t understand that it’s wrong and should not be
celebrated.”
Sible, who starred in a recently released short film
titled “Ate” added, “There are a lot
of talented Filipinos in Hong Kong. We can do so much more than these
stereotyped roles.”
In a separate interview local actress and model Sabrina Man said,
“I don't think it's
appropriate that she had to darken her skin for the role,"
"Domestic workers
have done so much for Hong Kong, and I think it's disrespectful to them and to
Filipinos in general to do this," she added.
However, there were others who replied to Chow’s tweet
saying things like that nothing was wrong with the drama series and that actors
should be able to play any role offered them.
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| TVB got flak also for its 80s variety show where blackface was used to depict a Filipina DH |
This is not the first time
TVB has been embroiled in allegations of racism in its shows. In the ‘80s the
popular variety show “Enjoy Yourself Tonight” had a Chinese actress in
blackface and tight curls playing a Filipina domestic worker. More recently, another TVB
drama series Come Home Love: Lo and Behold featured a Hong Kong actor playing a Filipino domestic
worker. Fans praised the actor’s “maid accent.” (with reports from various media outlets)
