BEIJING: A Chinese fashion label has pulled a children’s clothing line and apologised after consumer complaints surfaced about prints that contained references to racial violence and suggestive phrases including “let me touch you”.

The designs by JNBY, widely shared on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, prompted outrage and criticism among users who said the designs were unsuitable for impressionable youngsters.

One photo showed an item with the English words: “The whole place is full of Indians. I will take this gun and blow them to pieces,” while another had cartoons of a boy being shot with multiple arrows.

“What is JNBY trying to express with such prints?” one social media commenter wrote. “I used to like their adult’s clothing, but didn’t expect their children’s line to be so sinister!”

JNBY apologised, saying that it received complaints involving products with “inappropriate patterns” on its children’s apparel line.

“We have immediately pulled all the related product series from our shelves, revoked relevant publicity material, and set up a specialised group to investigate internally,” the brand said in a statement on Weibo.

JNBY, a popular designer label founded in 1994 and headquartered in Hangzhou, added that it had also opened channels for refunds and apologised to buyers.

It reported net profits of around 624 million yuan ($96.6m) for the most recent financial year.

Many users were unmoved by JNBY’s expression of remorse. “This is not a problem that can be solved with an apology,” one argued.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021