Many are shocked to discover that, despite thousands of miles’ worth of Pacific Ocean separating them in addition to differences in language, culture and religion, Latin America’s largest and most populated country Brazil and the world’s largest and most populated continent Asia share a close affinity.
In the early 20th century, mostly to work land and help develop the former Portuguese colony, Japanese immigrants arrived in their masses as a pact was struck between Japan and Brazil and, despite a troubling period during the Second World War when their language was prohibited from being spoken and widespread prejudice manifested itself in violent forms, were able to blend into Brazilian society effortlessly.
These days, cities such as São Paulo have the largest number of Japanese or Japanese-descent citizens outside of Japan who have, in the modern age, been joined by arrivals from South Korea and China whilst unitedly able to go about their lives and businesses in a remarkably-tolerant country without fear of racist reprisals.
It comes as a shock then, especially when considering the amount of Brazilians now plying their trade in the country’s Super League and being handsomely-compensated for their services, that ex-Fluminense attacker Kenedy would be sent home from Chelsea’s otherwise successful pre-season tour of China in light of two ill-advised posts on social media.
Both were videos uploaded to Instagram, the first bearing a caption translated by Chinese and British media as “F*ck you China” and the second showing a sleeping security guard accompanied by a text construed as “Wake up China. Idiot”.
Members of a generally-sensitive society, Chinese fans were quick to voice their disdain over the content and fuel was added to the fire by a ruling-Communist Party-backed People’s Daily editorial which dished out accusations of racism and xenophobia whilst accusing the Brazilian of “offending” their homeland.
Kenedy rushed to try and calm things down in the aftermath of Saturday’s pleasing 2-0 victory over Arsenal, in which is every touch was booed by the baying crowd. “Hello my friends, just wanna say sorry if someone was sad because I used the expression “porra”, was no racism, just an expression...big hug,” the winger wrote and indeed has a point.
Poorly thought out as his communication was, ‘Damn, China’ would have been a far more accurate translation and changes the context entirely with, in the case of the sleeping security guard, the word ‘vacilão’ closer to describing someone who is untrustworthy or irresponsible and should be handled with hesitation as opposed to idiotic.
Sensing a PR-nightmare, club officials were quick to act by issuing their own apology, sending Kenedy home on Sunday and slapping him with a fine. As eager to dramatize the affair as their British and Chinese counterparts, Brazilian media have speculated that Chelsea will “never be able to tour China again” and tap into the lucrative Asian market first opened up for Premier League clubs by Manchester United.
