Garnering over 190,000 views on Weibo in China, the video has drawn fire from Indian netizens, who have condemned it for racism and demeaning Indian culture.
“They are very much mocking India, Bollywood and Indians”, Aadil Brar, a columnist for ThePrint in India, wrote on Twitter, calling it “insane” that the ministry had used such content.
In another segment of the video posted on Bilibili by Brother Hao, the performers are seen eating at an unsanitary roadside food stall with a man dressed like an Indian woman.
Another Twitter user commented: “So apparently this was shared by an official Chinese government body for road safety. I’m like whut? How? It’s 2023.”
However, the video appeared not to have struck most Chinese netizens as problematic.
“It’s so magical, I watched it several times”, said one Weibo user, while others posted emojis faces with tears of joy. Another user commented: “laughed to death”.
Some Chinese users took to Twitter to defend the video. They said the song, “Tunak Tunak Tun” from the 1990s, was “monumentally” popular in China and an example of “Indian soft power”.
However, one user contended that only the men in the video wore blackface because “Indian men are regarded as clowns in China but Indian women are regarded as beauties”.
Neither the Chinese ministry nor the Indian government has reacted to the controversy.
