Chinese Corner: Zhili is the Child Modeling Capital of China

Source:supchina.com

Last week, a video showing a mother kicking and slapping her three-year-old daughter during a photo shoot ignited fury on Chinese social media. “Don’t make me kick you to death,” the mother, at one point during the appalling clip, yells at her child. Shortly after the video went viral, a baby care company revealed the toddler to be Niu Niu 妞妞, a well-known child model who has been featured in a number of ads for children’s apparel companies. Under immense pressure from the public, the abusive mother later issued an apology, saying she never intended to harm Niu Niu, and that her “big movements” was a form of “instruction and communication” that accidentally crossed the line.

Unsurprisingly, the “apology” didn’t quell the public outrage. To exacerbate the situation, more footage showing the mother’s violence emerged in the following days, which forced her to apologize again in an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, in which she confessed that she was “blinded by money” and “got lost in the world of child modeling.”

The abuse and exploitation of Niu Niu, however, is hardly an isolated case. In Zhili, Zhejiang Province, where Niu Niu spent the vast majority of the past three years, there are hundreds of apparel factories that produce more than half of the clothing for children in the market. There are also thousands of parents like Niu Niu’s mother, who dream of their kids making it big as a model.