Bad news for rednecks who can navigate Taobao. Or so we thought when we read yesterday’s South China Morning Post headline, “Alibaba follows Amazon, eBay in banning Confederate flag sales after racist attack in US.”
In response to an email enquiry from the SCMP, Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper, an Alibaba spokesperson gave this statement: “Alibaba Group prohibits listings of materials that are ethnically or racially offensive across its platforms.”
“As such, we will be removing listings for flags, clothing and other memorabilia that display the Confederate flag imagery.”
When we searched Taobao for “confederate flag” at 5:35pm Wednesday, six products appeared in the search results, five of them belt buckles from the same seller in Shanghai. The Shanghai-based vendor did not return a message asking if Taobao had notified her that Confederate flag paraphernalia could no longer be sold on the platform.
Clicking on the other item, an English-language book entitled Colors and Blood: Flag Passions of the Confederate South, brought us to an error page that said: “Sorry, the product cannot be found.” (We think that one was probably ok, Jack Ma!)
Clearly vendors had been getting the memo. Some twenty minutes later, only one Lone Star belt buckle remained in the search results, a Texan rebel making its last stand for the South…on Taobao.
Of course, every China noob knows that trawling Taobao in English doesn’t give you nearly as many hits as typing the Chinese keywords into the search box. And this has never been truer than when Alibaba makes a PR move directed exclusively at the English-language media.
And lo, a search for “美国邦联旗” yielded 28 results on Taobao, mostly belt buckles and key rings.
Apart from the eye-watering prices, the other common denominator shared by the results is that not one has ever drawn a single customer. (The gray text “0人付款” in the corner of each item reveals that Taobao-surfing rednecks really are a non-existent segment of consumers).
Apparently even in communist China, it’s just too darn expensive to wear your racism on your waist.
Potential buyers of these charming emblems of Southern pride thinly veiled symbols of bigotry are instructed to be patient since the items have to be shipped from ‘Murica, which is ironic given that the majority of Confederate flag paraphernalia is apparently made right here in the good ol’ PRC.
When we asked the vendor of 13 battle-flag-bearing belt buckles if Taobao had banned the sale of products adorned with the Confederate flag, the seller replied, “You don’t need to worry about that. Do you want to buy?”
Good to see that, as ever, commerce is alive and well in the People’s Republic.
0 User Comments