There's a bit of Internet controversy about the 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. The photos are all shot in very scenic rural locations in several countries including China. So far, nothing to get bent out of shape about, but the racism allegations are due to the use of native people as "props" in the background. In a few of the photos, the local people in the background also appear in subservient roles (such as the first one below). Although the photos do seem to be portraying stereotypes, I'm not sure whether or not I'd consider them racist. I'd guess Sports Illustrated was probably just trying to come up with striking images, portraying the swimsuit models in the foreground with the scenery and contrasting local people in the background.
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| Blonde bikini model relaxes while old Chinese man does manual labor navigating a bamboo raft |
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| At least in this photo the man gets to take it easy a bit |
Most of the China photos seem to have been shot in and around Guilin, where I've taken similar photos (minus the swimsuit models). While I'm sure people such as the old man and the young girls in the photos aren't used to such scantily clad foreigners, they're certainly quite accustomed to being photographed by tourists (Chinese and foreign alike). From my experience, they seem very good natured about it and I suspect that they wouldn't feel like they're being exploited, especially if Sports Illustrated paid them as I would assume they did. Of course, that wouldn't make it less racist (assuming it is), but to these people, posing for photos is part of their job and the Sports Illustrated models were probably a lot more interesting than most of the tourists they encounter.
By the way, according to this article, it took over 2 years of negotiation to get visas for the photo shoot in China.
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Yes, the photos was took on the Li River of Guilin. http://www.chinatourguide.com/guilin/li_river.html
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