China Airs Blackface Show — Again! — for Lunar New Year 12 Feb 2021 Chinese broadcaster CCTV opened its annual four-hour-long Lunar New Year variety show Friday with a “multicultural” dance performance featuring ethnically Han Chinese performers in black skin paint pretending to be African. The use of blackface prompted global ire, as it was not the first instance of it appearing in the program. CCTV prompted a similar backlash in 2018 when airing a comedy sketch featuring a Chinese actress in blackface pretending to be an African woman who loved Chinese people. On that occasion, the actress accessorized her brown body paint with artificially enlarged buttocks and a plate of fruit on her head.