The American technology giant Apple Corporation just launched the iPhone 15 flagship mobile phone series last Thursday (September 14), which was swiped by a photo of a customer service staff in a few days.
A photo from the Apple Watch expert on one -to -one shopping guide page shows an apple watch expert with black long braids.
The photo was quickly circulated and became popular in Chinese social media last Saturday (September 16).Although no one knows who the mysterious characters in the photo are, many Chinese netizens said that the image of the character made them feel uncomfortable and scolded Apple on the top of Weibo.
These netizens said that the character's six Western elements of the Chinese people's stereotypes were gathered in uncle, wide eyes, wide eyes, garlic nose, master mole, Mongolian face, and pork tail.For "ugliness" Chinese.
Is it Asian or Indians?
Just as netizens are still pointing at this mysterious character, Phoenix Network Technology Sunday (September 17) quoted news that the mysterious character was actually an Indian employee who worked in Apple.
This photo does not only exist on the official website of China, and web pages in the United States, Japan, South Korea and other regions also use the same photo.
The Finance News Agency on Monday (September 18) also learned from Apple that the protagonist of the photo is a female employee working in Apple headquarters in California, USA.
Some netizens believe that since Apple does not say that the characters in the photo are Chinese, the photos are not just on the official website of the Chinese official website, they do not have to go online at the same time, but also deliberately attacked the parental appearance of people, and they have a demeanor.
Some netizens believe that the "humiliation" storm reflects the "narrow nationalism" of the Chinese people, and ironically says that although the Chinese people have cut their braids for more than 100 years, "the braids in their hearts (inferiority) still have not been cut."" ".
But the criticism of Chinese public opinion has not stopped.Chinese Global Television Network CGTN reporter Han Peng posted on Weibo on Monday that the Chinese would say loudly if it was not appropriate, because "American racial discrimination, if you don't say, the other party does not exist."
He also wrote: "The United States has so many requirements for me, and it is on the line of political correctness and the outline. Now I am a Chinese consumers.'The website is uncomfortable, I don't allow me to say it yet? "
The netizen named "Six sweet potato bear" also wrote: "One to say one, don't say that this person is Indians, even if he is an American ... this person just makes me feel uncomfortable, make me unhappy, make me unhappy! I hope Apple can consider my feelings. "
Hu Xijin, the former editor -in -chief of the Global Times, called on netizens to maintain rationality. "When encountering some vagueness and may have multiple explanations, we must let the rationality occupy the wind and take a positive attitude towards communication."
But Hu Xijin also believes that when multinational companies do propaganda, they should be more cautious and try to avoid using content that may cause misunderstandings of Chinese people.
Earlier video launched a vote on Weibo last Sunday, asking netizens how to view the image of Indian female employees.As of Tuesday afternoon, about 123,000 netizens believed that the image of the braid customer service was "indeed uncomfortable", and only 59,000 people thought it was "incomparable."
As the storm is more intense, Apple customers responded on Monday that they had received relevant feedback and attached great importance to this issue. They will follow the official website response.But as of Tuesday, except for the Financial Association, Apple did not come forward to confirm whether the characters in the photo were Apple employees and Indians.
Squan into a Chinese people's aesthetic taboos?
There are more than one standard of beauty, but it is difficult to have unified standards. Green radish has its own love.
However, in the past few years, many international brands and even Chinese brands have been deeply trapped in the "humiliation" storm due to the use of squinting eyes in publicity photos or advertisements.
In November 2021, French luxury brand Dior showed a photo of a female model with Asian face in Shanghai.The female model in the photo is full of freckles, with exaggerated buns, and has a squinting eyes under the thick eye shadow. Two fingers wearing black Qing Dynasty armor are accused of "ugly Chinese women."
Coincidentally, the "Three Squirrels" of Chinese Internet Red snack brands also was criticized for "intentional catering to the images of the Western ugliness of the West in the West" because of the squinting makeup of models in food advertisements. "
It seems that the aesthetics of the Chinese people seem to be relatively unified: squinting is ugly, and people who use squinting to represent China are ugly Chinese.
Apple is involved in the Sino -US Science and Technology War?
In addition to violating the aesthetic taboos of Chinese netizens, Apple may have been involved in the Sino -US scientific and technological war.
China Communication Equipment Giants, Huawei, suddenly launched a new Mate 60 Pro smartphone at the end of August. This new machine is said to use the domestic 7 -nanometer process chip, which is considered to break through the US technology blockade.
Huawei's new machine aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese consumers, and put a lot of pressure on the Apple, which launched the new machine two weeks later.Financial Network launched a vote on Weibo on September 9, asking the netizens if 43%of the 130,000 participants would be used to use Huawei.
But the challenge to Apple is not only the potential loss of Chinese consumers, but also the endless negative voice volume of the Chinese market.
In the past week, Chinese social media such as Weibo and Zhihu have continuously reported negative news about Apple mobile phones.Netizens who claimed to be an expert in the communications industry issued a post on weekdays questioning the iPhone5G signal fraud, saying that when he was riding Beijing Metro Line 10, there was no 5G network in the area, but the iPhone showed 5G signals.
Chinese actor Liu Jin Sunday (September 17) also uploaded a video to attack Apple's after -sales service.He said that the iPhone 13 Pro Max motherboard he used had a problem recently, hoping to return to the Apple factory for repair.However, Apple customer service asked Liu Jin to pay 6,960 yuan (RMB, about S $ 1301) for maintenance costs on the grounds of "unauthorized modification" of mobile phones.
Although Liu Jin reiterated that he purchased a mobile phone at Apple's specialty store and did not modify it without permission, Apple still made Liu Jin's mobile phone modified.Liu Jin was dissatisfied with Apple's "both a player and a referee", so he broke his mobile phone at the door of the Apple Store in Wangfujing, Beijing, and threatened to not buy any products of Apple.
The crash and photos of Apple customer service were accused of "insulting China" on the same day on Weibo.Soon netizens discovered that among the number of Weibo posts from Liu Jin, the client still showed "iPhone", and Liu Jin's live broadcast platform increased faster, so many people questioned that he was probably just "hype, blog, blog, blogHuman eyeball.
However, under the attack of these negative sound volume, the sales of Apple's new machine in the Chinese market seem to have not been greatly affected.
According to the Financial Association, the iPhone 15 series last Friday (September 15) within 10 minutes after the pre -order was pre -pre -order, Apple's official website collapsed.At the official flagship store of Tmall Apple Store, the first batch of iPhone 15PRO and iPhone 15 Pro Max sold out after selling for one minute.According to the JD platform data, as of this Monday, the reservation of the iPhone 15 series has exceeded 3 million units, and some models have to wait until November to receive the goods.
From this point of view, for apples that depend on the Chinese market, it may be the best way to wait for the storm.But the Indian female employee who caused controversy was obviously just a shopping guide employee. It was not an image spokesperson. However, when he couldn't make any debate, his appearance was not disaster and criticized by a large number of Chinese netizens.
There are comments on the Internet that it is normal for people to have different aesthetic preferences, but malicious attacking others' appearance is really losing.The ugly reflection of the incident is actually not in the so -called squinting eyes.
