During a children’s segment in a late night talk show in the United States, a child proposed to wipe out the Chinese as a solution to the US$1.3 trillion debt to China. The Chinese were not amused

Updated: Friday November 15, 2013 MYT 8:21:20 AM

Kids say the darndest things

BY THO XIN YI

During a children’s segment in a late night talk show in the United States, a child proposed to wipe out the Chinese as a solution to the US$1.3 trillion (RM4.17 trillion) debt to China. The Chinese were not amused.

A POPULAR Chinese idiom, Tong yan wu ji, loosely translated means that one should not take offence at what a child says. The phrase is used to show that a child should not be taken seriously when he or she utters something improper or inauspicious, especially in an unacceptable manner. It implies that kids say the darndest things, which are candid and laughable at times. But when a child proposed to wipe out the Chinese during the Jimmy Kimmel Live show as a solution to the US$1.3 trillion (RM4.17 trillion) debt to China, the Chinese were not amused.During the ABC Network’s late-night programme that was aired on Oct 16, a segment was dedicated to a group of young children having a light-hearted roundtable discussion.

When host Jimmy Kimmel asked for suggestions on how to pay China back, a blond boy answered, “Shoot cannons all the way over and kill everyone in China,” slamming his hands on the table.

“Kill everyone in China? Okay that’s an interesting idea,” Kimmel responded with a laugh.

Another child suggested building a huge wall to prevent the Chinese from coming after them, to which Kimmel replied, “That will never happen.”

Kimmel later asked the panel of four, “Should we allow the Chinese to live?”

The kids had mixed opinions – the screen showed a girl raising her clenched fist, shouting “Yes!” while the blond boy stood by his earlier answer.

“But if we don’t allow them to live, then they will try to kill us,” said another girl who tried to talk some sense into the boy.

“But they’re all going to be killed (first),” two kids, including the blond boy and the girl who had earlier shouted “yes” out loud, argued.

Kimmel wrapped up the segment, noting that it was an “interesting edition of the Kids Talk – the Lord of the Flies edition”.

(Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, tells the story of how a group of boys govern themselves on a deserted island after a plane crash.)

This particular segment has sparked a backlash with viewers commenting that the skit was racially insensitive.

Protests were staged outside ABC studios, prompting ABC and Kimmel to apologise, but the controversy has not died down.

As of Thursday morning, more than 104,000 online signatures were collected on the White House petitions page, urging the Obama administration to investigate the show.

Since the petition had reached the 100,000-signature threshold in 30 days, the White House was compelled to issue a formal response.

Meanwhile, in China, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang told a press conference that ABC should reflect on its mistake and respond to the Chinese Americans with a sincere attitude.

On Wednesday, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported that it had received a response from White House National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden.

“As the President has stated publicly, the United States welcomes the continuing peaceful rise of China. He believes it is in the United States’ interest that China continues on the path of success, because we believe that a peaceful, stable, and pros­perous China is good for the United States, China, and the world.

“The comments reported on the Jimmy Kimmel show do not reflect mainstream views in the United States on China,” she said.

The controversy has also ignited discussions on the Internet as well.

Nick Zhang Xu, who made waves in cyberspace last year with a video of him speaking English in 10 dif­ferent accents, responded with a video titled “Jimmy Kimmel, you owe us an apology”.

Since it was uploaded to Youku – the Chinese equivalent of YouTube – about 20 days ago, it has been viewed more than 35,000 times.

“What kind of education do the kids have in America? They can just shout out loud ‘kill everyone?’” Zhang asked.

“‘This is an interesting idea.’ You find it amusing. You don’t call it wrong in the first place. What’s the matter with you?”

While sending a strong message across, it was hard not to note that Zhang had attempted to inject some humour into the video as well.

“You know what? We can make shows (to defame you) too. We are really good at remaking things.”

Some Youku users threw their support behind Zhang and agreed that the Kimmel’s skit had painted a larger picture on the culture of violence and hatred.

But there were also people who believed that the kids’ comments were harmless and called for fellow Chinese to be less sensitive.

“We place too much emphasis on “saving face” and cannot afford to have others making fun of us. This is just an entertainment programme,” a user said.