Candy giant bows to 'China racism' complaint
Confectionery giant Fazer has announced that its "Kinapuffar" product is to be re-designed after complaints that the current portrait was "racist".
"Kinapuffar" (literally: Chinese pops) is a chocolate-covered product with packaging that features a caricature of a bright yellow Chinese face with a red pointed rice hat.
Fazer's move is in response to a column in the local Swedish newspaper Helsinborgs Dagblad (HD) which took issue with the packaging.
"We have taken the feedback that we received on board and are going to change the packaging," Fazer's Sofia Liljefors-Edlund told the newspaper.
In his column, HD journalist Patrik Lundberg wrote that "to joke and laugh at Asians seems to be the only racism which can pass by unremarked".
"All it takes is stretching your eyes with your fingers or saying L instead of R, then the audience explodes with laughter," Lundberg wrote.
He argued that the packaging is no better that the "Nogger black" - an ice cream product which caused consternation among some Afro-Swedish groups a few years back, prompting its withdrawal.
While Lundberg has himself not contacted Fazer, several of his readers elected to remind the Finnish firm of its responsibilities, prompting their response.
The firm is yet to decide on just how it plans to redesign the packaging.
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"Kinapuffar" (literally: Chinese pops) is a chocolate-covered product with packaging that features a caricature of a bright yellow Chinese face with a red pointed rice hat.
Fazer's move is in response to a column in the local Swedish newspaper Helsinborgs Dagblad (HD) which took issue with the packaging.
"We have taken the feedback that we received on board and are going to change the packaging," Fazer's Sofia Liljefors-Edlund told the newspaper.
In his column, HD journalist Patrik Lundberg wrote that "to joke and laugh at Asians seems to be the only racism which can pass by unremarked".
"All it takes is stretching your eyes with your fingers or saying L instead of R, then the audience explodes with laughter," Lundberg wrote.
He argued that the packaging is no better that the "Nogger black" - an ice cream product which caused consternation among some Afro-Swedish groups a few years back, prompting its withdrawal.
While Lundberg has himself not contacted Fazer, several of his readers elected to remind the Finnish firm of its responsibilities, prompting their response.
The firm is yet to decide on just how it plans to redesign the packaging.
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