Dolce and Gabbana had to cancel its Shanghai fashion show after its ‘DG Loves China’ campaign drew wide condemnation from patriotic Chinese.
Love can make people do silly things, especially when you love someone who doesn’t love you back. That’s the situation the famed Italian fashion brand Dolce and Gabbana found itself in this week when it had to cancel its Shanghai fashion show after its “DG Loves China” campaign drew wide condemnation from some patriotic Chinese people.
D&G seems to have trouble professing its love for China without causing backlash from some Chinese. In last year’s “DG loves China” campaign, it showed fashion models standing next to ordinary Chinese people such as street vendors and garbage collectors. Such dramatic contrast is normal in a Western fashion magazine spread, but some Chinese netizens were offended because they thought D&G intentionally showed “low class” Chinese people and the unflattering side of the Chinese society in order to undermine China’s rising power image.
This year, D&G planned its great China fashion show in Shanghai for November 21. It promised to be one of the largest gatherings of fashion icons and celebrities in China. Leading up to this big show, DG rolled out a series of short videos, titled “eating with chopsticks” throughout its official social media accounts.
Each video shows a fashionable Chinese model in DG clothes (of course) attempting to eat traditional Italian food such as pizza, spaghetti, or a cannoli with chopsticks. Each video ends with #DGlovesChina and #DGTheGreatShow. DG probably thought it could profess its love for China through humor. But many Chinese in mainland China find these videos neither loveable nor humorous, but downright racist, an intolerable insult to Chinese culture and Chinese people.
Online comments were brutal, and many are not suitable for publication. Some asked DG, “Do you know Chinese invented noodles? This is totally stupid.” Some declared, “We don’t care for Italian food cause it tastes like sh-t.” Many comments also targeted the Chinese model in the video. She was called a “traitor,” an “idiot” who needs to learn how to use chopsticks properly.
The online storm from Chinese netizens quickly worsened into a category five hurricane after someone named “diet_panda” posted a deleted tweet, supposedly coming from D&G designer Stefano Gabbana’s account, containing derogatory comments about China. Gabbana quickly clarified that his Twitter account was hacked and he didn’t write those tweets, because he loves China and Chinese people.
D&G issued an apology to China and Chinese people. But Chinese celebrities immediately announced through Weibo (a Twitter-like social media platform in China) that they weren’t going to attend the DG fashion show.
