Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. hoped that flying pigs would appeal to young Chinese consumers. Instead they’ve become a flashpoint in the country’s rocky ethnic relations.
A well-known Muslim snacks entrepreneur from western China criticized the e-commerce company last week for renaming its travel-booking service Flying Pig Travel, or Fliggy, saying it would turn off Muslim customers, who abstain from pork.
On his account on social-media website Weibo, Adil Mamattura began by saying he was a strong supporter of Alibaba, relying on its Tmall platform to sell his snacks. “But now with Alitravel changing its name to Flying Pig, I can only delete the app,” he wrote. “Maybe all Muslim friends will also delete the app, as all the world’s Muslims avoid the word ‘pig’ as taboo.”
Mr. Mamattura, who has 216,000 followers on Weibo, soon deleted the post, though it’s still circulating via screen grabs. He later replaced it with an apology saying his comments had been inappropriate.
Even so, the backlash was swift. Many Chinese netizens took to social media to unleash a wave of invective invoking unflattering stereotypes against the entrepreneur and other Uighurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic group. State media cited his original post and quoted people criticizing Mr. Mamattura for injecting religion into commercial matters.
Alibaba said in a statement that it respects people of all backgrounds and that the name Fliggy was meant to appeal to younger travelers, who represent 80% of its customer base. The company didn’t say if it’s rethinking the name or the logo, an abstract face that doesn’t look like a pig.
“We embrace diversity and respect all creeds and religions,” an Alibaba spokesman said. “The name change is meant to reflect the demographic’s aspirations to pursue dreams, sit back and enjoy life.”
The controversy over an offhand remark by a sweets vendor reflects the sometimes tense relations between China’s Han Chinese, who make up some 90% of the population, and Uighurs, who are mainly concentrated in the far western region of Xinjiang. Deadly ethnic rioting in Xinjiang’s capital in 2009 and massive Chinese government counterterrorism operations to squelch violent incidents in recent years have further worsened relations.
Mr. Mamattura declined to be interviewed on Monday, saying it was inconvenient to talk. He’s an unusual figure to be caught in such a controversy. State media for years have praised him as a model ethnic minority entrepreneur, who has publicly advocated for better relations between Han and Uighurs.
He made the news in 2014 for donating five tons of his nut cakes to victims of a massive earthquake in China’s southern Yunnan province .
In his apology, posted on Weibo late Sunday, Mr. Mamattura stressed the positive in ethnic relations. “I get along very well with my Han friends and colleagues,” he wrote. “I will work to improve myself, to use my practical actions to convey better things and positive energy.”
Chang Chung-fu, a National Chengchi University professor in Taiwan who studies Chinese Muslim minorities, said the Han Chinese are so numerous it’s rare to see them accommodate Muslim sensibilities except in areas with large Muslim populations. In China’s western Qinghai province, for example, Mr. Chang said he saw Han residents celebrating the Year of the Pig, based on the Chinese zodiac, in a low-key way to avoid offending their Muslim neighbors.
“They had big posters with pictures of pigs, but they hung them indoors,” he said. “In other areas of China and big cities, there probably isn’t that kind of awareness.”
(WSJ)
