The Chinese detergent advert that triggered racism controversy

                



A controversial TV advert for a laundry detergent in China has been attacked as racist after showing a black man being "cleaned" to become Chinese.
The commercial, for Qiaobi detergent, begins with a Chinese woman putting dirty laundry into the washing machine.

The camera then shows  a paint-splattered black man who whistles and winks at the woman.

Signalling for him to come over, the woman beckons him in for a kiss before putting a detergent capsule in his mouth.

She then puts him head-first into the washing machine and turns it on. Sitting on the machine while it spins, she finally opens the lid smiling to find the black man has turned into a light-skinned Chinese man.

The advert, which was reportedly shown in cinemas across China when it was aired a month ago, has been viewed more than two million times after being uploaded to YouTube. It has reignited long-standing concerns over racism in China.

One Shanghai-based blog – the Shanghaiist – said many Chinese people held "a well-established phobia of dark skin" which it claimed "breeds racist attitudes towards people of African descent, who are viewed by some as 'dirty' simply because of their skin tone".

The Chinese government affirmed the nation is "good brothers" with Africa, after a television advert depicting a black man seemingly having his skin colour washed away provoked widespread accusations of racism.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said that the advert was an isolated commercial act, and had not led to any diplomatic complaints.

"Everyone can see that we are consistent in equality towards, and mutually respect, all countries, no matter their ethnicity or race. In fact, we are good brothers with African countries," Ms Hua told a daily news briefing, Reuters reported.

In response, Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics, which owns the brand, said it had removed links to the advert, and implied that the controversy had been stirred by the media.

"We express our sincere apologies and sincerely hope that the many internet users and the media will not read too much into this," the company said in a statement.