Three Squirrels is an online e-commerce snack brand founded in 2012 in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China, although it claims to be an international enterprise and brand, but in fact, it is mainly for the Chinese market, and the audience is mainly Chinese consumers. So I personally think that this incident is subjectively and deliberately said, accusing them of wanting to "insult China", I think this reason is a bit far-fetched, because they do not have this motive, "insulting China" has no benefit to the capital behind them.
In addition, this symbol of squinting eyes and thick lips is indeed a somewhat uncomfortable stereotype from the perspective of overseas Chinese, but it may not be possible to say that these two symbols are "insulting China". Then the truly recognized symbol of serious "insult" is to put the two index fingers of the two left and right hands on the two corners of the eyes and pull up, and this "pulling the corner of the eye" action is a very serious insulting racial discrimination symbol.
But over the years, I have also regretted to find that when foreigners adopt this symbol to insult Asians and Chinese in the open and covert, whether at home or abroad, there will always be some people who deliberately confuse the public and dilute it. For example, in the past few years, the Argentine foreign aid of the Chinese Super League's Huaxia Happiness Team- Ravitch, he openly made a "corner of his eye" action when taking family portraits, which was pointed out by the fans and then diluted, which I think is very unacceptable.
Speaking of "squinting", there is a hot topic recently, which is an animated movie related to Cantonese dancers, called "Xiongshi Boy". The characters are generally small eyes, and the eye distance is very wide and ugly. The film and the advertisement of the three squirrels have some characteristics in common: first of all, the creators of these works are mostly local people; second, these works are the main audience and Chinese. Generally speaking, there should be no such huge "aesthetic controversy", so I think this is a phenomenon of "judging ugliness", and the reason is that some people in China have long understood the so-called "international aesthetics" one-sidedly and accepted a large number of Western "aesthetic concepts", which has caused such a chaotic situation today.
But in the face of audience accusations, some of the creators are still saying that their works are completely without problems, which is really ridiculous, and even a little too stupid. Because to put it bluntly, you want to make Chinese money, you want to earn Chinese eyeballs, but you don't take the Chinese universal aesthetic standard as the standard of the work. In the face of accusations, not only are they unwilling to admit that they have made mistakes, but they condemn the voice of criticism as "do not understand art and do not understand 'beauty'", and they should also be criticized and written. You treat the ugly as beautiful, you treat the smelly as incense, this is your personal freedom, of course, you can toss it at will, but you do not impose your "beauty" on us, and also call us do not understand art and do not understand "beauty", this practice is annoying, and it is rightly resisted.
However, in the criticism of this matter, I think it is necessary to criticize to the point, to convince people with reason, and to be to the point, rather than what kind of behavior is serious, what words attract attention, put it on the line in what aspect, and keep in mind that only the right medicine can be cured to get rid of the disease. Instead of casually putting on a big hat of "insulting China" and then wantonly insulting and intimidating, no matter how fierce the "prescription" is, it will not be beneficial to the "disease". For this kind of behavior, we must use the market to use commercial interests and the laws of business to teach them to be human, so that their interests and reputation are lost, forcing these people's brain stance and aesthetics to return to normal slightly.
Many of my friends around me have learned about the three squirrels and "The Lion Boy", and we can't accept this so-called "high-level beauty". A friend of mine made it clear that he was a loyal consumer of Three Squirrels for many years, but he would never buy the brand again, and he couldn't stand this distorted aesthetic.