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Hong Kong singer criticised by the Chinese for wearing Dolce & Gabanna

Chinese citizens were angry by Mok’s brand choice due to a 2018 D&G campaign they deem racist

Peony Hirwani
Monday 14 June 2021 11:39 BST
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Karen Mok criticised by the Chinese for wearing Dolce & Gabanna in new video
Karen Mok criticised by the Chinese for wearing Dolce & Gabanna in new video (Getty Images)

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Hong Kong-based singer Karen Mok has issued an apology after facing backlash from Chinese citizens for wearing a Dolce & Gabanna bathrobe in one of her new music videos.

In the 51-year-old pop singer’s new album The Voyage released last week, she was seen wearing the D&G robe in the video of the song “Woman For All Seasons.”

Chinese citizens were angered by Mok’s wardrobe choice due to a 2018 D&G campaign they accused of being racist.

The campaign featured a Chinese woman dressed in the brand’s clothes, giggling as she tries to use chopsticks to eat a pizza, a large cannoli, and spaghetti.

The videos posted on the brand’s Instagram profile were meant to promote Dolce & Gabbana’s new campaign DG Loves China. However, they were met with heavy criticism.

Diet Prada, an account dedicated to discussing brand issues, described the campaign as “offensive.”

“Pandering at its finest, but taken up a notch by painting their target demographic as a tired and false stereotype of people lacking refinement/culture to understand how to eat foreign foods,” they wrote.

“It attempts to target China, but instead mocks them with a parodied vision of what modern China is not… a gag for amusement,” Diet Prada wrote.

Chinese citizens took to Weibo to ask why Mok has been promoting “such a brand,” while some others called for the boycott of the singer.

The topic was trending on the Chinese microblogging website for several hours on Saturday.

The singer, with a career spanning three decades, has now removed the music video and photographs of her wearing the D&G outfit from her social media accounts.

Her agency and the designer also put out an apology for the same.

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