Chainsmokers Apologize For Joking That Chinese People Eat Dogs

Rich Fury / Getty Images

Chainsmokers Apologize For Joking That Chinese People Eat Dogs

Rich Fury / Getty Images

At this late date, you’d think any public figure would realize that making sweeping generalizations about an entire group of people — particularly an entire ethnic group — is a bad idea. But the Chainsmokers are not known for keeping their tongues in check, and it’s gotten them in trouble again.

As The Independent reports, yesterday the duo tweeted a promotional video documenting their recent trip to Shanghai for the Ultra China festival, which included excerpts from a filmed interview. At one point Alex Pall (the bearded Chainsmoker) mentioned he can’t take his dog on the road because she’s badly behaved, or else he’d bring her everywhere. He then added, “Well, I don’t know if I’d bring her to China,” alluding to the stereotype that Chinese people eat dogs. Both Pall and his musical partner Drew Taggert cracked up, while the Asian man interviewing them put his hand over his mouth. Buzzfeed made a screengrab:

The clip spurred a lot of outrage and has since been deleted. In its place the Chainsmokers have shared an apology note from Pall:

I made a comment in an interview about being hesitant to bring my dog, Cheddar, to China, because I have read reports about dogs being slaughtered in certain provinces. We originally posted a video to share how much we love China and our fans there. We would never do anything to intentionally upset our fans and we apologize if we offended anyone. Anyone who wants to help prevent the slaughter of dogs please visit

http://stopyulinforever.org

The website links to a campaign against the Chinese festival Yulin, aka the Lychee And Dog Meat Festival, which began in 2009. The event involves eating dog meat for good luck and has been protested by animal rights groups.

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