The owner of a Chinese restaurant in Christchurch has cancelled an order of takeaway bags with the words “DUMP-RINGS” on them, to avoid any complaints. Jason Dodd, who took over the restaurant a year ago, said that the bags were originally ordered by the previous owners, and following a customer complaint he has decided to end their use.
"I do not want to be offending anyone, so I cancelled the order," he said, noting that after the initial complaint he had asked his Chinese cooking staff, who he says did not find it offensive. Original owner Sam Hooper, who came up with the “tongue-in-cheek” phrase when he owned the restaurant, said that he also tested it on his kitchen staff, using their response as a “litmus test”.
However, following the uproar over Bamboozle restaurant’s racist menu earlier this year, which similarly made fun of Asian accent, social media users took to Facebook to voice their displeasure.
“Where does the buck stop with the appropriation of Asian people’s culture?” asked Chinese New Zealander Gabby Lowe. “Where is the line between respecting it and reviling it? It seems your restaurant doesn’t know the answer to these questions either. I am all for more people enjoying the food that my ancestors have spent years perfecting and enjoying, and am happy to try new and exciting remixes of those foods made by people that aren’t necessarily Chinese/Indian/Thai/etc. but you don’t get to treat our countries’ food with more respect than you treat the people that invented it.”
Dodd has now announced that he has cancelled any future orders, and will replace the bags once all existing stock has been used.
