 This Chinese makeup is sparking an online debate because of her latest tribute to the great Kobe Bryant. Yeah, we got to talk about it. This is going viral in some circles right now. Long story short, Easy Baobo is a famous social media makeup artist in China. She does a lot of imitations of a lot of celebrities. She did one for the late great Kobe Bryant, passed away tragically three years ago. And this sparked a huge online debate in her. There was such a spectrum of opinions on one side. People were like, what are you doing? This is blackface. Some people are a little bit against it. Some people are a little bit supported. And other people were just like, dude, why is everybody so serious, sensitive in 2023? Like she was trying to show love to Kobe. Yeah, and it also brought the conversation even to like an international level about how people internationally in different countries and different cultures, they don't initially understand the same dynamics that are going on in America. And should they be subject to those American dynamics? I don't know. But whether you agree or disagree with her doing this, I won't tell you this. It is clear that Chinese people love the NBA and they love Kobe Bryant because her caption translated into English was literally, Kobe is forever, love him. And she did issue a statement being like, yeah, I am not trying to imitate. I'm just showing my love and respect for Kobe. She is a makeup artist. That is how she does it. And again, she has imitated other people. But regardless, this is a different topic. So we're going to talk about this. We're going to go through the comments section. Please check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. Literally, I read maybe 1,000 to 2,000 comments for this, Andrew. There is no way that people think that this is one of the most serious issues going on in the world right now. However, you know what I noticed, Andrew? Like we always say, people like discussing silly things more than they like discussing, I guess, right off the rip, serious things. They rather make serious things out of silly things. Yeah. Yeah, you want to draw serious conversations from silly things people like to do. I think that's human nature. Somebody said this was a beautiful tribute and art that was his intention. That's how I'm personally taking it. I saw this comment from a lot of different races of people. No, and I will admit it and say, wow, she did kind of look like Kobe Bryant in a weird way. And it was kind of weird to see it all happen. Yeah, yeah. Like I guess I'm so. There's some strangeness to it. There is. There is some strangeness to it because I guess you didn't think a Chinese woman could even look like Kobe in any type of way. Now, I don't know if the end photo was kind of Photoshopped or anything, but regardless, it is impressive. And I will tell you this. When it comes to the makeup artist game, she clearly got the mama mentality. Yeah. Somebody said there are a lot of rules around cultural appropriation, and they shift culture to culture. It's very difficult to know what is acceptable or what is not acceptable because even people within a group have a variance of opinion. Exactly. Like judging from the comments, obviously a lot of black people spoke out, not even all of them. And I wouldn't even say most black people were offended by this. You know, a lot of people were defending her or just saying like, yeah, it's not that big of a deal. Maybe it's a little bit strange. I would say, yeah, I mean, but I do think that it's not wrong for people to be offended if they are a little offended. Yeah, if that's how they feel for sure. Because I can understand there was another comment that addressed this, Andrew. It said, whether people view it as hypersensitive or not, don't you think that after all the racist laws in the histories that African-Americans have been through, they deserve to be on the defensive mode? I think that people can leave whatever comment they want. Other people can leave whatever comment they want. However, I think as far as like canceling this makeup artist or like taking her down, obviously I think that's too extreme. She probably doesn't deserve that because it wasn't out of that intention. It was literally out of her love for Kobe. But I will say, it can come off as strange, especially when you're getting content that is imported from Asia, a place with completely different dynamics and you're seeing it on an American platform out of context. Yeah, sometimes. I do think it's a worthwhile conversation and I'm never gonna tell anybody to be offended, to not be offended. I'm never gonna tell somebody like, oh, you can only be offended to a four out of 10 level and not a seven out of 10 level. Everybody got their own life experiences and their own lens on life. Somebody said, this is a white guy saying, there is no white or black culture. It's all homogenized in 2023. If you can't zoom out and see that, then you're just not seeing big enough picture. I think it's so tough because I think on certain levels, it's clear that culture is all borrowed and appropriated in a healthy way and re-imitated and all this thing all across the world. Other cultures, Asian cultures in America, obviously a lot of American culture, even black American culture specifically exported to the rest of the world. Right, like what is Taco Bell? What is Panda Express? These are like representations of foreign cultures to American soil, but they've almost become American culture. But then also on the internet, as much as culture is being shared in an authentic and positive way, there is still racism. There's still absolutely racism. Dude, it's so complicated, man. I get what he's saying in the sense of like, if you're talking about Western culture, like somebody coming in, Andrew, as a Buddhist, is still like way different to the West than people who are different types of Protestant. You know what I'm saying? Like if somebody's Baptist or somebody's like Episcopalian, a Buddhist is looking at it, like it's all just like Protestant to them. So it does depend on like, what lens you're viewing like similarity and difference through it. What largeness of context, right? Exactly. Somebody said, but did you guys know that Kobe was named after Kobe beef, which comes from the city of Kobe, Japan? Yeah, I mean, I think he was. Is that the real story though? Yeah, that's the real story. Yeah, he is named after Kobe, Japan. Well, he has a Japanese name, actually. Somebody said, the Wayne's Bros. did a complete movie in whiteface. Was that okay? I don't know. I mean, yeah, of course you can have all long conversation about comedy and the lines of comedy or if there are no lines. And is it very different when you're punching up or punching down in the power structure? Absolutely. I think those are valid. But again, if you're from Asia, are you punching up or down or just sideways? Or I don't know. It's so hard to tell, right? Yeah, I mean, the easiest way to say it is you are just an alien. And aliens, I don't know, are aliens subject to the dynamics of the West or are they just on their own alien planet? So I want to be clear. I think most comments were either neutral or positive for the makeup artist and more understanding of her intentions. There were some people who were firmly against it. They weren't all black people. They weren't all white people. It was a mixture of people. But what did they say? I mean, they were basically saying, this is black-faced, given how culturally sensitive the historical context is, you should have the common sense to not even get this close. Somebody was saying, if you are gonna show enough love to an American icon like Kobe, you have to do more research on American racial dynamics. That is an interesting comment. Okay, now I think that it's tough because how do you also tell someone how to show homage? Obviously she's not doing it in a disrespectful way. She did an amazing job with the makeup. Like she didn't make herself look all goofy in like almost like a Picasso photo. Like she literally tried to do as accurate of a job as possible. It's almost like a one-to-one or she tried her best, yeah. Yeah, almost as good as I've ever seen ever, right? But that is fair that if you love American icons, is do you have some responsibility to try to understand some American dynamics? Right, but then people are saying who is even agreeing on the American dynamics because there's so much disagreement about where the line is or where the threshold of, some people say the threshold is here, some people say the threshold is there. Look at that, that's why it's a debate, people. Somebody said, what if a black person changed themselves to look like Asian and had slanted eyes, would that be okay? And somebody said, I don't know, if you could make yourself look like Bruce Lee, I think that that would be pretty impressive. All right, so I do think there's a level of accuracy that if anybody could make themselves look legitimately like Bruce Lee or like Lucy Liu, like an Asian icon and make it look that accurate, I guess I'm curious to see it. Yeah, I would think it was tight for me personally, but I could see like, listen, I'm not saying the historical context of being Asian, it's the same because there's not the black face in the twenties and thirties with the Broadway and the Hollywood. It's not gonna be doing the eyes, this is not how you're gonna make yourself look like Lucy Liu. Other people said they were moderately against this. This guy said, listen, I know that this guy was black, he was saying, I get it, she's from China, she doesn't know, she did do a great job, but it is black face and I would use it as an opportunity to educate her. So this is the camp, Andrew, like we said, like there was a whole distribution on a spectrum where they're like, they're not trying to crucify her, but they're against this existing more. Yes, yes, yes, I don't think everybody should try to do it, but I do think that if you wanna leave a comment and obviously she is now informed of the situation, I think that's totally fine. Now, does she go on and do Denzel Washington and do all these other like black icons? Probably not, she's probably not gonna do Martin Luther King, don't worry, you know, but I think that it's totally fair in informing her about the dynamics. Yeah, this person was an Asian person, I guess there was moderately against this, they said, listen, I'm just going to listen to black people, if even a portion of black Americans are offended, then I'm offended with them. So this is interesting, I mean, like, hey guys, like I said, some people triangulate their opinions with the opinions of other people that they feel like are closer to the blast zone of that issue, it's not wrong. Somebody said, this is a section of black Americans, Andrew, that were unbothered, they thought it was cool, or they thought it was neutral. This guy said, I'm black and I'll allow this one. Chinese people worship Kobe Bryant and just all around Asia, they love Kobe. If white people did this, I would feel different about it and maybe it would be in a more mocking, insulting way if they did do it. Ooh, doesn't matter, David, that Asians, especially in Asia, and let's just put the spotlight on China, the China market has bought so many Jordans and Kobe shoes, and they love Kobe. Well, they actually make up like 40% of the NBA's profits, right? Yeah, it doesn't matter that honestly, they have supported Kobe his entire career, essentially, his entire famous career, and that they love him so much, so it's almost like when other people see that, they're like, man, I just know those people, they probably don't mean it like that, but they probably just look at it through one lens, but they really are famous. I think it means a lot if you really understand, like on a real level, for sure it means a lot, because the reason why a lot of people don't really dress up as Asians, in my opinion, is because they don't really care about Asians that much on a pop cultural level. You have to care enough about somebody on a pop cultural level to worship them. Now, I'm not saying, by the way, that sometimes worshiping somebody or idolizing somebody, it doesn't come out weird, but you still have to worship them initially to even as a basis, right? That's true. We're not getting a lot of makeup artists doing yellow face for us. Yeah, because people don't worship Asians in a pop cultural sense at all. Yeah, literally people do not want to be Asians. So they, yeah. Somebody said, I do think it counts as blackface, honestly, but she's just showcasing her talent. This turned into a whole discussion about what is blackface. Some people are like going off the 1920s, 30s definition. Some people are saying, no, anybody who is of lighter skin tone, who paints their skin with a darker skin tone is doing blackface. So there's semantic arguments over the dictionary word. Yeah, but I guess there's also brownface, right? Because like if anybody, if you're depicting anybody who has a darker skin tone than you, like let's say if we, I'm not saying we whatever, dress up as like a South Indian, right? Who has darker skin or even a Filipino. Like, you know what I mean? I guess that there's such an American dynamic and history to the word blackface that sometimes it is so hard to apply it to the entire world. It's hard. Some people said I thought it was dope. I know she replicates a lot of different ethnicities around the world. So that's what makes it more okay to me. Somebody said, would it be offensive for sure if she was white and she did an amazing job? I do think it's possible that it is offensive, right? Because white people have a history of doing it. I mean, because the whole concept of blackface was white people doing it in the 1910s and 20s. Yeah, but also I think if she's a white American she's already aware of these dynamics. What I could see is maybe a white person from like Sweden or Belgium or it's just somewhere far off in Europe. Maybe Russia or something. Yeah, that's doing their depiction of Kobe Bryant and what if it's very good but it's like technically blackface? I don't know. This is why there's an online debate. Yeah, like I said guys, these are comments that I pulled off the internet. A lot of Blazians Andrew that were actually half Asian, half black, I'm assuming mostly with a black father and an Asian mother, they supported it. Oh yeah. I guess David, overall what are your like overall takeaways from all this? What can we learn from this debate that's online? First of all, again, I don't think people are trying to tear down her account. I don't think people are accusing her of being racist but they are saying that this falls under the umbrella term of blackface, which is offensive. Yeah, I mean guys, just to sum it up in terms of my analysis, I probably read about 1,500, 2,000 comments. I would say maybe 10% were outwardly against Balbo and then you had a whole spectrum in between and maybe I would say like 25% were fervently in favor and Andrew almost everybody else like 60% was in the middle somewhere. I feel like my takeaway is that I saw a lot of people leaving the comment and this was a comment left by all different types of people, not just Asians, but people saying, hey guys, the world is bigger than America. These American dynamics and history does not have to apply to everybody in the world possible. Right, right, and I agree and like I said, for me, it's like tough to say, right? Cause you're saying, all right, if you're paying homage to American icons, do you have to be subject to all these nuances and things like that, that not even all Americans are aware of to be honest. So it's like, I don't know. I mean, I don't think that she was doing her makeup for the American market. She was doing her makeup for the Chinese and Asian market. Right. So I don't think that she was coming onto American TV trying to do this. She was just doing it on the Chinese platform. I guess my takeaway is I totally understand if people are offended or they find it strange, I wouldn't encourage makeup artists anywhere in the globe to do more of this, to be honest. But in the terms of her case, I mean, I thought she did, obviously on a purely talent level, she did an amazing job and that's her way of showing respect. However, if a sizable enough portion of people feel greatly offended by it, then I think that people should take that into consideration. Although, let's be honest, even within the black American experience, they have a variance of opinion, you know, all along the spectrum. Right. All right, everybody, you know what? We're gonna leave it right there. You guys let us know what you think in the comments down below. Keep it civil, keep the arguing to a minimum. Like we said, guys, I think the majority of people, even when I read this post being posted on the Shade Room and other more, I guess, predominantly African American audience-based Instagrams, it was like overwhelmingly at least neutral. Yeah, yeah. I would say so for sure. I mean, I would just say it is definitely odd almost how well she is able to pull some of these makeup transformation. Hey, Bobo, honestly, she might be one of the best in the entire world. Like if I just pop up some of the other ones she did, like her Neymar one is good. It honestly looked like she had an AI filter for a lot of these celebrities. I'm not just saying the Kobe one, every one, all of them. But anyways, guys, you let me know in the comments down below. Keep it civil, hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hop-Up Boys. Thank you so much. Until next time, we out. Peace.