Hong Kong ‘naked sushi’ event cancelled after online backlash
Organisers of a controversial brunch featuring a half naked woman in a food-based cabaret have cancelled the performance after complaints about sexism and the objectification of women. The brunch will still be going on
Organisers of an upcoming Hong Kong brunch that was going to feature food presented on the partially clothed body of a female model have cancelled the event due to online accusations of objectification of women and sexism.
The three-hour buffet was going to feature entertainment from Nyotaimori Tokyo, a Japanese performance group founded by photographer Myu Chan that specialises in nyotaimori, or “female body arrangement”, a practice which is said to date back hundreds of years and involves sushi or sashimi being served on a woman’s body.
Fang Fang, the Central restaurant due to host the event, confirmed that the nyotaimori performance would no longer feature in Saturday’s event, organised in partnership with wine importer Vines and Terroirs. “Based on the feedback from our customers we have reconsidered this event,” the restaurant said in a statement. “We are a venue which wanted to host the show and … women being objectified is clearly not what we want to do.”
Valentin Maurel, co-founder of French wine importer Vines and Terroirs, had earlier defended Saturday’s planned Japanese Cabaret Brunch Party, arguing it was about “reviving old traditions in a modern way”.
Critics accused the organisers of sexism under the pretence of art, saying that serving food on the body of a female model promoted the objectification of women. Since Monday morning, there has been a growing number of angry comments on Facebook posts about the event. Organisers argued that the event channelled a “traditional experience” and was going to be performed by artists who “specialised in this specific art”.
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Posting as Vines and Terroirs, Maurel insisted that it was an artistic event. “We are in 2017 and one should understand that art is controversial,” he wrote. “Would you be attacked [sic] any artist, photograph, sculptor or painter who take a nude or half nude human as subject?”
Commenter Elaine To wrote that defining a practice as artistic didn’t mean it wasn’t also objectifying. “The two are not mutually exclusive,” she wrote, adding: “There’s a distinction between nudity and sexual objectification. What’s being called out here is the latter … Just because it’s traditional doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea to revive it.”