D&G taught a Chinese model to eat pizza with chopsticks — Shanghai show cancelled

In November 2018, ahead of 'The Great Show' — Dolce & Gabbana's flagship runway event in Shanghai — the brand posted a three-part video series called 'Eating with Chopsticks' on Weibo. The videos showed a Chinese model in a D&G dress struggling to eat pizza, spaghetti, and cannoli with chopsticks. A male voiceover instructed her in condescending Mandarin, intentionally mispronounced the brand name, and asked questions like 'Is it too big for you?' The tone was patronising; the framing was orientalist.

When Chinese social media users accused the campaign of racism, co-founder Stefano Gabbana responded in private Instagram messages by calling China a 'country of [shit emojis]' and 'ignorant dirty smelling mafia.' Screenshots of the messages leaked. The leak transformed a tone-deaf campaign into a diplomatic incident.

The backlash was immediate and total. Actresses and models scheduled to appear at the Shanghai show — including Wang Junkai,迪丽热巴, and Chen Kun — withdrew. The Shanghai government cancelled the show the afternoon of November 21. Alibaba's Tmall, JD.com, and Lane Crawford removed D&G products from their platforms. The brand went dark on Chinese e-commerce overnight. On November 23, Dolce and Gabbana posted a video apology saying 'sorry' in Mandarin.