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The controversy erupted after Dolce & Gabbana posted short clips on Instagram earlier this week, showing a woman eating pizzas and spaghetti with chopsticks that some felt were insensitive to culture.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Image: www.dolcegabbana.com
BEIJING – Dolce & Gabbana canceled a Shanghai fashion show on Wednesday after the outcry over offensive racist messages on its social media accounts, a setback for the company in the world's largest luxury market.
The Italian fashion house quickly issued a statement in which it apologized and claimed that the accounts as well as those of its eponymous creator, Stefano Gabbana, had been hacked, but it has hardly quieted the tumult of social media in China .
Some of the biggest Chinese celebrities were supposed to attend the "Great Show" event, but announced Wednesday their withdrawal.
"Our motherland is more important than anything else, we value the strength and beauty of our cultural heritage," said Wang Junkai, the extremely popular TFBoys Boyband singer, when it announced its withdrawal.
"I love my motherland," said actress Li Bingbing to 42 million Weibo fans.
The controversy erupted after Dolce & Gabbana posted short clips on Instagram earlier this week, showing a woman eating pizzas and spaghetti with chopsticks that some felt were insensitive to culture.
It erupted in a fiery storm after capturing the conversation of an Instagram user's conversation with the famous fowl Stefano Gabbana, in which he used five smiling emojis to talk about China and insulted the country and its inhabitants.
Even the Chinese Communist Youth League has entered the fray.
"Foreign companies operating in China must respect China and the Chinese," tweeted the youth league at Dolce & Gabbana on Weibo.
The actor Talu Wang also tweeted about Weibo: "Respect is more important than anything."
As the reaction got worse, Dolce & Gabbana turned to Instagram and Weibo claiming that his account and that of the designer Stefano Gabbana had been hacked and that his legal office was "urgently investigating" the case.
"We are sorry for the distress caused by these unauthorized publications.We have only respect for China and its people," the company said on Instagram.
Dolce & Gabbana indicated separately on its verified Weibo account that the show "has been postponed", although it does not specify the reason and does not give a new date for the event.
"We apologize for the inconvenience," he said.
The controversy marks the latest backtracking of a foreign company for offending Chinese consumers with advertising or information insulting China or clashes with Beijing's official stance.
Earlier this year, the German automaker Mercedes-Benz apologized for "hurting the feelings" of China after its Instagram account quoted the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, considered separatist by Beijing.
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