Recently a laundry detergent commercial of China sparked uproar among the Western media. The commercial showed a Chinese woman putting a black man into a washing machine who came out as a light-skinned Chinese man after a wash. The advert was criticized as "racist."

It cannot be denied that whoever designed the callous commercial seems to be completely unaware of racial discrimination and its sensitivity in the Western society. Qiaobi, the company behind the commercial, was little known until the advert was released and raised questions about the company's branding capability. It is highly doubted whether the firm will have a future if it maintains the unscrupulous style.

Meanwhile, the Western media might have gone to the extreme by intensively reporting on the advert and accusing the Chinese of racial discrimination. Chinese society has never clearly distinguished races and hence the racial issue has never been part of Chinese thinking but always considered as an alien phenomenon. It is right to say Chinese people lack a collective sense of racial problem.

Unless Qiaobi intended to promote its brand by courting controversy, it made a genuine mistake, with no intent to offend the public. In this case, the Western media can understandably show their displeasure. But they might have gone too far in endlessly exaggerating the issue. They might even have been so ignorant that they equated the Chinese history with the dark past of the West with regard to racial issues. The latest advert controversy reminds Chinese people that as the world gets increasingly interested in China, many internal affairs of China actually have international influence and draw attention of the audiences around the world. As China doesn't have the say in terms of ideology and values, it has to be monitored by a suspicious West. This may be an unavoidable part of globalization. China's contacts and clash with the outside world will expand and may even involve an inappropriate advert by a Chinese firm.

China is reluctant to enter into such clashes as it is yet to be developed enough to eliminate the simple mistakes. It has to be attentive to the feedback from the outside world, while not caring too much if encounters displeasure. Controversy should be handled on a case-by-case manner.

We have to blame Qiaobi for its unmindful action and narrow-mindedness. But we cannot hand over all the say to Western media. Racism has been one of the major evils in the Western modern development. When some Westerners magnify racism in China just because of a laundry detergent advert, why don't they also think of their detestable reputation of racist discrimination?