In New Year's gala, Chinese TV features blackface performers

As Asia welcomed the lunar Year of the Ox with subdued festivities amid travel curbs to contain renewed coronavirus outbreaks, Chinese state TV included dancers in blackface depicting Africans during a national broadcast on Thursday. 

The African song and dance performance came at start of the Spring Festival Gala, one of the world's most-watched TV programmes. It included dancers in African-style costumes and dark face makeup beating drums. 

The five-hour annual programme, which state TV has said in the past is watched by as many as 800 million people, also included tributes to nurses, doctors and others, who fought the coronavirus pandemic that began in central China in late 2019. 

Festivities for the holiday, normally East Asia's busiest tourism season, are muted after China, Vietnam, Taiwan and other governments tightened travel curbs and urged the public to avoid big gatherings following renewed virus outbreaks. 

China's ruling Communist Party tries to promote an image of unity with African nations as fellow developing economies. But state broadcaster China Central Television has faced criticism over using blackface to depict African people in past New Year broadcasts. 

On Twitter, Black Livity China, a group for people of African descent, who work in or with China, called the broadcast extremely disappointing. It noted CCTV's 2018 Spring Festival Gala featured performers in blackface with a monkey. 

We cannot stress enough the impact scenes, such as these have on African and Afro-diasporic communities living in China, the group said. 

Elsewhere in China, Buddhist and Daoist temples that usually are packed with worshippers for the holiday were closed. Streets in major cities were largely empty.