Racist sweets?

[Humes fork]

Btw, here is an article in English about this whole affair.

 

[carlitos]

This rum is probably tough to sell in certain neighborhoods.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

I know. But I'm not sure if the English "Saturday" has a similar origin. The rest of their weekdays have the same linguistic origin as ours thought. Tiw is Tyr, Wodan is Odin, and so on.

Hm, Mon- and Sunday are moon and sun, I guess. I always figured Saturday was the day of Saturn (Cronus), a Roman leftover.

 

[WildCat]

This is why the Swedish name of Saturday is "lördag" from "lögardagen" or washing day.

But it's not like anyone is sweating in Sweden anyway... just think how smelly the French were back then!






eta: we had a bunch of Belgian foreign exchange students at my high school for a month or so, one lived at our house. They only bathed once a week, and this was in 1982 or so. We gave her fresh towels, some soap, pointed out the shower for her, but their belief was it's good to keep the body's natural oils. Yes, they smelled.

 

[TX50]

This reminds me of how the makers of "Camp Coffee essence" in Scotland were obliged to change their "racist" label too:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-404516/Camp-coffee-forced-change-label-PC-brigade.html

 

[Ian Osborne]

This reminds me of how the makers of "Camp Coffee essence" in Scotland were obliged to change their "racist" label too:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-404516/Camp-coffee-forced-change-label-PC-brigade.html

I have my doubts about whether they were 'forced' to change that label. Despite the hyperbole, there's no hard evidence in the article to suggest they were. I'll wager they chose to change it as a routine modernisation, part of which involved bringing the image up to date.

 

[Humes fork]

Hm, Mon- and Sunday are moon and sun, I guess. I always figured Saturday was the day of Saturn (Cronus), a Roman leftover.

Turns out you are right.

 

[Noztradamus]

Edit: Apologies for activating the star device gizmo thing.

That's what the Monks in Larry Niven's "The Fourth Profession" say when a system won't build a launching laser.

 

[Ryokan]

I really think one would have to go some to beat the South African gob stoppers called ****** Balls - I believe they changed their name in more recent time to Variety Balls (they started off black and changed colour as you made your way through them).

Are you saying ****** balls change colour as you suck on them?

 

[Hokulele]

As someone who is of partial Asian descent, I found the image stereotyping, but not offensive. I have certainly seen worse in Hawaii. The real question is, do the candies taste good?

 

[Ryokan]

The real question is, do the candies taste good?

It's puffed maize with a chocolate covering. Doesn't really scream 'China', but they taste alright.

 

[Nogbad]

Are you saying ****** balls change colour as you suck on them?

I have no empirical evidence - nor likely to obtain any. However, the records suggest that this was the case.

 

[Puppycow]

[qimg]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0bWfz946TSI/Tnh5CCW-itI/AAAAAAAADzU/ikT5PCH_ewc/s1600/kpuffar.png[/qimg]

In a recent op-ed, a Swedish person of Asian origin complained that many(?) Swedes have stereotypical views of Asians and make fun of them. Among the examples he pointed to is the sweets package above, which he felt reinforced the sterotype.

The firm (Fazer) took notice of it and announced that they would redesign it. The word "Kina" [Sheena] is just the Swedish word for China.

My question is, would the package be considered racist or stereotypical in other countries?

As for if Swedes have stereotypical views of Asians, I'm not an Asian so I can't tell how they percieve it. But it's very possible.

Is there actually anything Chinese about these snacks?

Of course, I'm told that what Americans call "French fries" and "French dressing" are really French.

I wouldn't call the package racist, but it is clearly stereotypical.

 

[timhau]

Is there actually anything Chinese about these snacks?

Rice. I think they're sort of like sweet Rice Krispies bunched together and covered with chocholate.

 

[Ryokan]

Rice. I think they're sort of like sweet Rice Krispies bunched together and covered with chocholate.

They're not made of rice, they're made of maize/corn (red bag) or wheat (yellow bag).

http://www.fazer.se/Varumarken/Kina/

So yeah, as I said earlier, doesn't exactly scream 'China'.