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Questionable Obama Fried Chicken joint opens in China
By Jeff MillsOctober 2nd, 2011, 5:50 pmComments (10)
A new restaurant in Beijing, China called OFC, for Obama's Fried Chicken, and featuring a banner with the image of a smiling President Obama dressed as KFC's Colonel Sanders in his signature suspenders and bow tie, has people questioning Chinese motives. The sign also includes a slogan in Chinese which translates to English as, "We're so cool, aren't we?"
Issues of cultural relativism can breed misunderstandings, but one wonders why China would associate the U.S. president with fried chicken specifically. Back in February, KFC China ran a short-lived ad for the new Soft Roll Fish Fillet which featured an Obama lookalike getting squashed by a colossal Fish Fillet sandwich falling from the sky, followed by an enthusiastically-cheering, American flag-waving crowd. Was this a subtle anti-American message being sent?
In fairness, back in 2009, two NYC fried-chicken restaurants in predominantly black neighborhoods, Obama Fried Chicken in Brooklyn, and Obama Fried Chicken & Pizza in Harlem, came under fire for supposedly reinforcing an unfortunate stereotype, though the motives were obviously commercial. At the time, City Councilman Charles Barron had organized a demonstration, and said, "People from the community were calling me and saying they were outraged by this racist connection to Barack Obama and fried chicken. If you think that free speech gives you the right to insult and degrade us and stereotype us, then you've got a battle on your hands."
In the case of OFC (which seems to pretty blatantly flirt with copyright infringement), some have speculated that the logo could be a response to the U.S. having filed a complaint with the WTO over exorbitant Chinese tariffs on American chicken exports.
Commentarium (10 Comments)
China, flirting with copyright infringement? I don't believe it. I'm sure it'll all be cleared up with proper respect for American intellectual property laws.
Wow, what a shock it must be to the reflectively liberal Nerve writers that the Chinese can be racist! And how can they NOT worship the great leader?
Did you mean "reflexively?"
because of a lack of diversity, East Asian cultures are the second most racist type of cultures in the world, after Arab cultures.
Oh no! They are making fun of our black president!
Fried chicken is a black stereotype. An American stereotype. The average Chinese national has no idea what this ad means as far as its "racial undertones," (what a bs term). Some kid with an internet connection and a fascination with American culture might be racist but it's a blanket statement to put this on the entire Chinese people.
The Chinese know who Obama is but that drawing looks more like a WWII DC comics propaganda depiction of a Japanese man.
The company shares the same name as the president. And while I agree that this stereotype is far more offensive and more prevalently used in the US, I still think they had to have had an inkling about the stereotype. Otherwise, why make the connection? Usually you're mascot is supposed to represent your brand, and I'm really having a difficult time figuring out why they would imagine that Obama is representative of fried chicken unless they were operating under that stereotype. I think there was a bit of naivete on their part, and we may misunderstand their intention. BUT by the same token, if we were to take some offensive stereotype (not saying we don't; can't think of any at the moment) and use it to promote some item with no ill will intended, we would still be reprimanded. And rightfully so. At risk of sounding like an enormous hippie, we should all be working towards understanding one another better, rather than dragging each other down with these useless caricatures of what we imagine one another to be.
I'm British so I grew up with US culture. Still, I wasn't aware of the black people/fried chicken stereotype until very recently.
It's pretty crazy to think that someone naming a restaurant in China would be aware of it.
"I'm really having a difficult time figuring out why they would imagine that Obama is representative of fried chicken unless they were operating under that stereotype"
KFC and fast food in general is obviously associated with the US. Obama is president of the US.
I lived in Asia for some time and this is not surprising. They just haven't lived with the racial politics we have. There are candy bars and chips sold in Korea and Japan that have a minstrel-type caricature of a black man with a bone through his nose.
At the same time, if you suggest to a Chinese or Korean person that the Japanese developed origami, you'd get the same reaction as if you suggested it's not a big deal where Rosa Parks sat on the bus.
Well done artclie that. I'll make sure to use it wisely.