Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Cameron Diaz Really Ought to Be More Careful About Wearing Foreign-Language Communist Slogans in Peru

Cameron Diaz Peru Communist Slogan Chinese Bag Picture Photo

Okay, so remember that girl you knew in college who got the word “love” tattooed on her hip in Chinese? Except what it really said is “I’m a neutered goat”? I know you knew at least one. I knew three. Maybe you even were that girl.

So Cameron Diaz goes hiking around Machu Picchu this week with a super-cute bag with a pretty red star and some fabulous Chinese writing that I’m sure she thought said “faith and love for all.” Except the Chinese writing actually said “Serve the People,” and, combined with the red star, she may as well have stuck Mao Zedong’s face on her T-shirt.

The ringing endorsement of Red China didn’t go over so hot in Peru, where the Maoist insurgency in the 1980s and early 1990s resulted in 70,000 rather brutal deaths.

Of course Cameron didn’t do this on purpose, but it seems to have offended a fair number of Peruvians.

Seriously, people, if you need another reason not to wear any words written in a language you don’t speak, look no further than Engrish.com’s clothing section. Any of you English speakers who have lived in Asia can appreciate how ridiculous it is to see an eight-year-old boy wandering around with an ice-cream cone and a T-shirt that says “Kill me now I want to die.” I’m still kicking myself for not taking a picture of that shit …

3 CommentsLeave a comment

  • yeah.. dumb liberal celeb visits poor/uneducated people and tries to keep them down by giving her Mao approval so she will continue have these rural fun-backward places to visit.

    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=paDiazsat08diazbag&show_article=1
    Cameron’s bag raises a few eyebrows

    Jun 23 04:33 AM US/Eastern

    Actress Cameron Diaz appears to have committed a major fashion crime in Peru.

    The voice of Princess Fiona in the animated Shrek films may have inadvertently offended Peruvians.

    They suffered decades of violence from a Maoist guerrilla insurgency by touring there on Friday with a bag emblazoned with one of Mao Zedong’s favourite political slogans.

    While she explored the Inca city of Machu Picchu high in Peru’s Andes, Diaz wore over her shoulder an olive green messenger bag emblazoned with a red star and the words ‘Serve the People’ printed in Chinese on the flap, perhaps Chinese Communist leader Mao’s most famous political slogan.

    While the bags are marketed as trendy fashion accessories in some world capitals, the phrase has particular resonance in Peru.

    The Maoist Shining Path insurgency took Peru to the edge of chaos in the 1980s and early 1990s with a campaign of massacres, assassinations and bombings.

    Nearly 70,000 people were killed during the insurgency.

    A prominent Peruvian human rights activist said the star of There’s Something About Mary should have been a little more aware of local sensitivities when picking her accessories.

    “It alludes to a concept that did so much damage to Peru, that brought about so many victims,” said Pablo Rojas about the bag’s slogan.

    “I don’t think she should have used that bag where the followers of that ideology” did so much damage.
    © Copyright Press Association Ltd 2007, All Rights Reserved.

  • I’m sorry but in Peru we’re not all poor uneducated people. Those kind of generalizations are very ignorant statements and you should inform yourself better before posting a comment like that.
    You say dumb celeb… well I think the only dumb one here is you.

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