Transcript (en)

Videos of a doll being punched, slapped and run over by a bike have been going viral on Chinese social media, sparking outrage around the world. But what are these dolls? And why are they trending? Popularly known as the Natasha doll in China, it comes in three colors, white, brown and black. But it's the black one that people seem to be coming after. A viral comment made on the Chinese social media app Red Note said that a white doll would look too human to hurt. I spoke to Ugonne, a Nigerian mom who has lived in China for years, to explain her experience with this doll. It was actually last Friday that I, for the first time, saw the conversations around the Natasha doll. I go into the Chow She, some small shops around the estate that I live, and I saw this doll right there. It turned out that this is candy. This is the candy version of the doll, which actually now goes to show you how incredibly popular the thing is There have been instances of racism against Black people in China before especially during COVID in 2020 In the case of Natasha dolls, we've seen online in the comments, people are focusing on the violence inflicted on the dolls, but not the fact that the dolls are depictions of a Black baby. And it's not the first time that the BBC has covered this either. In 2022, it was discovered that a group of Chinese creators were paid to have kids in Malawi chat racist phrases in Mandarin. These kids had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. There is actually an undertone of real racism that should be tackled, that should be looked at, that we should actually pay attention to and correct and condemn if we see it happening. In response, the Chinese government have warned that selling it this way might be breaking the law and they've started inspecting where it's being sold near schools.