Screenshot of the SK-II advert on Youku.com
An advert claimed to "empower" China's "leftover" unmarried women has triggered backlash since it went viral online last week, as some critics say they could not find confidence in it but weeping for sympathy.
Gu Yingying, an online female writer, says that the advert by Japanese cosmetics maker SK-II "splashes a bottle of dirty water onto (women's) independence and confidence."
With their growing number in recent years, unmarried women in China above the age of 27 are dubbed "sheng nu" or "leftover women", which women rights activists say is a kind of stigmatization. They are usually under great pressure from parents who would persuade or even force them to date and marry.
Gu writes in her widely-read article that the 4-minute video advert has no contents that demonstrate Chinese women's confidence, independence, beauty and easy grace, but is full of sentiments of depression and messages about society's intolerance and conservatism.
The article had received more than 100,000 page views on Wechat, currently the most popular social networking service in China, by Tuesday afternoon and was followed by comments that applaud her point of view.
The documentary-style advert, Marriage Market Takeover, is part of a global campaign of the Japanese company to "inspire and empower women to shape their destiny," according to media reports.
The film begins in a depressive atmosphere with parents pressuring their daughters to marry, but in the end the women win understanding after their parents find their written declarations of pride of being single and independent at a "marriage market", a place where parents seek dating opportunities for their unmarried children.
However, the happy ending doesn't win approval from critics like Gu. She argues that a correct stance about independence and confidence should be "enjoying one's own choice, for which you owe no one ."
Neither being single nor being married has anything to do with pride, Gu says.
She says that she can see no female image of independence and confidence in the advert but a group of weeping women who are seeking approval or sympathy, a typical female mentality in Chinese society.
The advert sells well among the audience as a result of the effect of empathy to the women, according to Gu.
Gu's words have been echoed by other Internet users. "It's all right to advocate being independent and confident, but the sensational part is quite cheap," says Mingqianyuhou, a user of Weibo, China's leading microblogging service. "Some people say they are moved by the video, but have they become more confident after watching it?"
Another Weibo user QueenieSolo says that the whole ad focuses on parents' opinions, which changed easily at the end. "Shouldn't we stand on a sociological perspective and tell the audience that being married or not is no problem at all for those independent, hardworking and confident females?"
IwkuaYingying contends that the women in the advert can't represent all to weep and say sorry in front of the camera, nor can their parents claim that being single means non-filial piety. "Only love can be the reason of marriage, not age or parents!"
As some critics put it, the advert's going viral reflects that the issue of unmarried female is regarded as a widely-concerned "problem."
Huang Han, a sociologist in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, comments on her Weibo that in Chinese society people traditionally refuse to believe single women can live happily and contentedly, and they have to 'save' those women by pushing them into marriage.
Not all people reject the advert. On China's Quora-like website Zhihu, an anonymous user believes the ad conveys a message that can empower other women to change their destiny. The user says that economically independent women without enough confidence can't help but get influenced by the environment.
