Zuo Ye said she felt "guilty and ashamed"
The Chinese model from Dolce & Gabbana’s controversial ad campaign has said her career was almost ruined.
According to the BBC, Dolce & Gabbana’s Chinese model from their ‘Eat with Your Chopsticks’ ad campaign has said it almost ruined her career.
In the controversial advert titled ‘Eat with Your Chopsticks’ model Zuo Ye is seen struggling to eat Italian food including pasta, pizza and cannolis with traditional chopsticks. “Is it too huge for you?” asks the male narrator.
Co-founder Stefano Gabbana then defended the advert saying, “if the Chinese feel offended by a girl who spells [sic] pizza or pasta with chopsticks means that those Chinese feel inferior… and then it’s a problem not ours!”
In another message, the 56-year-old said, “the country of (poop emoji) is China,” and then wrote, “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia.”
This triggered many in China including Crouching Tiger star Zhang Ziyi to boycott the Italian brand. Since, Dolce & Gabbana’s branding has been at a record low in China.
In a statement on Weibo, Zuo said she felt “guilty and ashamed” for “representing the national image of China and Chinese culture” in the ad. The Chinese model added that the advert “nearly killed off [her] modelling career”. She said she would “improve [her] behaviour” in the future.
Although Zuo was aware the ad was about trying Italian delicacies, she said she felt awkward eating the Italian food with chopsticks. She said the director told her to act shocked but eventually satisfied with the Italian food.
Zuo also said she did not see the final advert before it was release and revealed that her family and agent as well as her were targeted with attacks on social media.