For model Zuo Ye, who recently featured in Dolce and Gabbana's deplored¹ advert², the experience of being duped into the starring tokestic role was enough to “almost ruin [her] modelling career”.

对于出演杜嘉班纳被抨击广告的模特左也来说，这个糟糕的主演经验几乎“毁了她的模特生涯“。

You've probably seen it by now: the 40-second long depiction³ of Chinese culture, complete with a painfully patronising voiceover guiding the model through the eating of oversized Italian meals with cheap chopsticks.

你现在可能已经看过了：在40秒长的广告对中国文化的描写中，用一个惺惺作态旁白展示一个模特在用一双廉价的筷子吃一个超大号的意大利食物。

TFBoys band member Wang Junkai stepped down from his role as Chinese brand ambassador for D&G and a number of other famous figures denounced the long-criticised creative decisions of the designer brand.

TFBoy乐队成员王俊凯主动放弃了杜嘉班纳中国品牌大使，其他名流对于杜嘉班纳拍摄这样视频的行为也进行了谴责。

And Zuo herself also became a target for that anger.

作为模特儿的左也成为网友发泄愤怒的众矢之的。

Describing the shoot as “different from what [she] initially⁴ expected”, Zuo claimed in an apology on Chinese social media platform Weibo that she felt “uncomfortable” once it became clear what her role in the advert would be.

左也在中国社交媒体平台微博上发表道歉，称拍摄场景“和一开始她期望的不一样”，当她知道她在广告中扮演的是什么角色的时候广告，她觉得很“别扭”。

She said: “During the filming process, I was required by the director to laugh from ear to ear [and] laugh behind [my] hands.

她说：“在拍摄的过程中，我被导演要求手放在前面大笑。”

“As the food given was all super-sized, I did feel embarrassed when holding chopsticks. At the same time, I was required to laugh in an exaggerated way, but I hate to laugh in real life.”

“所有上来的食物都是超大尺寸的，用筷子夹住他们的时候我感觉很尴尬，同时我还被要求要非常夸张地笑，其实我在现实生活中是不喜欢笑的。”

Following that Zuo claimed to have “received lots of attacks and threats online” as well as being harassed⁵ “through phone calls, email and online”, noting that part of the reason she initially signed on for the role was due to the opportunities working “with any top brand” overseas as a Chinese model would bring her.

之后左也称自己“受到了很多网上的攻击和恐吓”，还有来自“电话，邮件，和网络”的各种骚扰。同时，她一开始接受这个角色是因为中国模特和这个国外“顶尖品牌”合作会带给她很多机会。

But whether or not she knew is beside the point; the advert should not have been made. The more important question is this: why it is that people of colour are still tasked with making choices like these, just to sustain their livelihoods⁶?

不过不管她是否知道具体的内容这些都不重要了，这样的广告就不应该被拍摄出来。还有重要的问题是：“为什么在这种情况下有色人种还是会为了生计而选择这样的工作？”

Ascribing Zuo a level of influence to the point of being able to convince a global fashion powerhouse to change its entire orientalist treatment is naive⁷.

不过认为依靠左的一己之力可以说服这个全球时尚品牌大亨改变对于东方的态度，想法是很天真的。

Control for productions like these lies firmly in the hands of creative teams – most likely dominated by white employees – who have been free to dream up these nods to racism⁸ unchallenged for years, either because there's no one there to object or because the few people who would do not feel supported enough to challenge the status quo.

这些（视频）制作都牢牢地控制掌握在创意团队的手中， 极有可能是由白人雇员决定。这些人多年来不受限制、不受挑战地、凭空想象种族歧视且奉行于此，要不就是因为那里没有人反对，要不就是没有人感觉到有足够的支持来改变这种状态。

Thankfully, consumers are slowly beginning to grasp the consequences of tokenism. It's not just harmless fun, nor is it just a matter of hurting people's feelings. As with Zuo, the fallout can ruin a career.

值得庆幸的是，消费者们开始逐步意识到这种象征主义的要义。这不是什么无伤大雅的玩笑，也不是仅仅是伤害人们的感受。从左的角度来说，这一次的崩塌也毁了她的事业。