http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wWLhrHVySgA
Instead of choosing a news article for this blog I’ve
decided to go for something a little more obscure, a little more tangential,
just to keep things interesting.
This music video called “Chinese Food” by 12 year old Alison
Gold is curious – the words are totally innocent, it’s a simple list of reasons
for why this young pop prodigy loves Chinese food.
Is this song trying to celebrate multiculturalism? Is loving
foreign cuisine evidence of your
inclusive approach to cultural diversity? Last week a colleague of mine
expressed overt racist sentiments, and then tried to apologise to me by saying
that she’s not a racist – after all she loves eating Chinese. Isn’t that
tokenistic? Would it be more accurate to say that she loves not having to cook
for herself?
This music video is definitely a tokenistic approach to diversity, as I noticed and as echoed by a commenter on the video, just how Chinese are kimonos and Geishas? Each stanza of the song is subtitled in a different language, so all the Russian, Korean, and Hindi speakers out there only understand one line of the lyrics. It’s received a staggering 26,690 “likes” on youtube, but they’re probably “likes” for the wrong reason. Reviews of the song hailed it as a contender for the “worst song ever” (Herald Sun) and described it as “rather distasteful” (Daily Mail). In a show of disbelief people like how horrible it is.
I’m not sure if you can call this covert racism, I’d
feel more comfortable describing it as culturally oblivious and subtly exploitative
(it was after all directed by the guy in the panda suit). Ho (2011) mentions
the Howard government programme “Living in Harmony” which equates
multiculturalism with “getting to know others” and “discovering ‘what we have
in common’” (pg. 614). At first glance the Chinese
Food music video is about the harmony that comes from mutual appreciation
of eating Chinese food, but as Valentine cautions, we need to be careful of
romanticising “intercultural
encounters, and question the assumption that everyday acts of kindness and
civility can be equated with respect for difference” (quoted in Ho,
2011, pg. 605). Ho argues that “mutual
recognition need not be based on agreement, but on a simple acknowledgement of
the legitimacy of the other’s
presence within a social space.”
(pg. 614). This music video is blatantly not an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of Chinese culture, it
doesn’t respect difference, it exploits difference as a marketing strategy.
References
Alison Gold. Chinese Food (Official Music Video). Sourced
from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wWLhrHVySgA
Clench, S. October 15, 2013. You thought Rebecca Black was
bad? Here’s Alison Gold with her contender for the world song ever, ‘Chinese
Food’. Herald Sun. Sourced from:
Ho, C. (2011). Respecting the Presence of Others: School
Micropublics and Everyday Multiculturalism. Journal
of Intercultural Studies, 32:6, pp. 603-619.
Stark, G. October 15, 2013. Is this the worst song of
all time? YouTube 'hit' Alison Gold follows in the footsteps of Rebecca Black
with the rather distasteful Chinese Food. Daily
Mail. Sourced from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2461973/Alison-Golds-Chinese-Food-Is-YouTube-hit-worst-song-time.html
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