Chris Rock

At the 88th Oscars on February 28, 2016, host Chris Rock invited three Asian children to the stage and teased that they were representatives of Pricewaterhouse Coopers . Later, he mentioned the incident of Asian child labor by the way. This originally designed "joke" has attracted dissatisfaction among many Asian audiences, who believe that it is really unnecessary to use children to "ridicule" Asians at the Oscars.

Oscar judge and senior Hollywood Chinese publicist David Magdael accompanied his client to the Oscar ceremony on February 28th local time. After the Asian joke happened, he successively posted a number of content on social media condemning it, thinking that this "joke is not funny at all." He said that although he understood Chris Rock’s various jokes about the Oscar ethnic controversy that day, this Asian joke seemed to have nothing to do with making the film industry value ethnic diversity, and most importantly, when Chris Rock finished speaking At the time of this joke, many people in the audience laughed, which made the Asian people feel unhappy.

Another well-known Hollywood film soundtrack and erhu player Karen Han, who often accompanied her husband and film sound editor Paul Ottosson to attend the Oscars, said that there were many film professionals who watched the Oscars with her. Everyone thinks that indeed in the eyes of Americans, Chinese means good maths and good grades. Many of them are engaged in accounting work. Even her own children are often laughed at by American parents for only studying.

She believes that the stereotype described by the host is itself a common view of Asians in the United States, but is it not necessary to use children as funny objects on occasions like Oscars and in front of audiences around the world? She felt that the ceremonial producer had ill-conceived.

Many Asians in the United States have accused this "joke" on social networks, believing that there are very few Asian appearances at the Oscars, but they are "ridiculed" when they take the stage. The "Washington Post", NBC TV and other media also criticized this, thinking that this was the "most failed" and "most embarrassing" among the host's jokes that night.

But there are also many Chinese audiences who feel that there is no need to overreact. A Chinese netizen said, “The whole ceremony was joking about ethnicity. Whites and Africans were ridiculed in various ways. The host, as Africans, showed no mercy to his ethnicity, saying that many Africans were not enough by themselves. Working hard and not good enough, Asians don’t need to be so sensitive, they have to relax their hearts.” Some people also said that this joke is actually showing that Asians and Africans are treated unfairly in the United States. It is a good intention. The main purpose of finding children on stage is for "comedy effects." 

Liu Luowen (transliteration), the editor-in-chief of the well-known online magazine Slate, has a special issue protesting Locke’s racially discriminatory joke: “Although the second sentence may be to improve the situation (employing child labor), it still cannot be used by him. Asians make excuses for bashing."

The American drama "Fresh Off the Boat" (Fresh Off the Boat) starring Wu Tianmin also expressed his anger on Twitter: "Let some children come on stage and tell some racist jokes in front of them. Taste."

The famous NBA star Jeremy Lin also protested on Twitter. Jeremy Lin said: "Seriously, when will this situation change? I can no longer bear this kind of brazen attack on Asians."