'Racism for sale', survey lays bare China's 'personalized video message' industry

The publication of these videos exploded between 2018 and 2020 on the Douyin Network - the Chinese TikTok.

AP - Ng Han Guan

Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow

3 mins

'Racism for sale'

is the title of BBC Africa's new survey of China's online

Small films shot in Africa, sometimes with children, sold to companies or individuals.

The authors denounce a veritable “

 ”, often tinged with racism.

A sector that was flourishing a few months ago.

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These short videos of about thirty seconds exploded between 2018 and 2020, they are now much less present on the Douyin Network, the Chinese version of TikTok.

But they have not completely disappeared, as evidenced by this message sent by muscular, shirtless Africans, wishing a residential complex in the Putuo district of Shanghai to have no cases of Covid-19 among its inhabitants and to get out of lockdown quickly.

" 

Black Devils 

"

Companies, individuals about to get married or celebrating their child's entry into university, even show-business stars order this kind of personalized videos, often on the same synopsis: a panel with characters in mandarin in the foreground, and groups of Africans, dancing, singing or chanting Chinese words they do not understand, against a background of palm trees or mud walls of villages in Africa.

In 2020, a Weibo account called 'Jokes about Black people club' posted a video.

In it, a group of African children huddled round a blackboard are made to say in Chinese:

'I'm a Black monster, my IQ is low' pic.twitter.com/QbmhKSR0tV

— Runako Celina (@RunakoCelina) June 13, 2022

To unfold the thread of her investigation, Celina Runako starts from a clip dating from February 2020, when the world had its eyes turned towards the pandemic which has just been discovered in China.

African children repeat in front of the camera, "

 " -  a "

" or "

 " - the equivalent of the word negro in Mandarin - and

A message that goes against the anti-racist discourse and aid to developing countries promoted by China.

For a year, the BBC journalist traced the track to pixels, up to a certain Lu Ke, who calls himself locally " 

" - " 

in Chinese - even though the latter was only in his twenties when he shot up to 380 videos a day with the children of a village in Malawi.

Clips sold between 10 and nearly 70 euros at the time

Racism and censorship

“There is something inherently sinister about going to Africa and throwing coins at people less privileged than you and asking them to do what you want,”

the reporter writes in a text that accompanies her

.

In addition to a flourishing business on the backs of the poor, the BBC documentary denounces the formatting of the minds of those who watch these images of a humanity reduced to the condition of

1/12 I used to work for the US operations of a Chinese short video company in Beijing.

What's just as dangerous as the people that create these videos are the algorithms that are optimized to promote them.https://t.co/EqaOhCXbih

— Alexandria Sahai Williams (@AlexandriaSahai) June 14, 2022

The question is also why, on an internet as heavily filtered as China's, racism can escape censorship: "

 " , underlines on Twitter Alexandria Sahai Williams.

The DW reporter once worked for a streaming company in China.

She recalls that there is a "

" behind these videos which, if nothing is done, is likely to come back in force in the future.   

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