The Super Bowl usually comes and goes without much notice in China.
The Super Bowl usually comes and goes without much notice in China.
However, this year, America's famous sporting event took a different turn when a television advertisement featuring Tibetans and a Chicago-area Himalayan restaurant triggered angry comments from Internet users in China.
The ad by Groupon a US-based company that helps online group-buyers get discounts was to generate support for The Tibet Fund, an organisation that aims to preserve Tibetan culture.
During the ad, actor Timothy Hutton appears to be served a meal at Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago.
He delivers the line "The Tibetan people are in trouble. Their culture is in jeopardy." Then in a seemingly sarcastic tone, Hutton adds, "But they still whip up an amazing fish curry!"
Hutton then talks about a 50 per cent discount he and other Groupon users got at a Himalayan restaurant in Chicago.
The joke fell flat with Chinese Internet users, at a time when the venture capital-backed Groupon is aggressively expanding its services and staffing in mainland China.
Tibet has long been a source of consistent domestic and international tension for China, which established control over the region in 1951.
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