OTTAWA 聴 The Bank of sa国际传媒 purged the image of an Asian-looking woman from its new $100 banknotes after focus groups raised questions about her ethnicity.The original image intended for the reverse of the plastic polymer banknotes, which began circulating last November, showed an Asian-looking woman scientist peering into a microscope.The image, alongside a bottle of insulin, was meant to celebrate sa国际传媒聮s medical innovations.But eight focus groups consulted about the proposed images for the new $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 banknote series were especially critical of the choice of an Asian for the largest denomination.聯Some have concerns that the researcher appears to be Asian,聰 says a 2009 report commissioned by the bank from The Strategic Counsel, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.聯Some believe that it presents a stereotype of Asians excelling in technology and/or the sciences. Others feel that an Asian should not be the only ethnicity represented on the banknotes. Other ethnicities should also be shown.聰A few even said the yellow-brown colour of the $100 banknote reinforced the perception the woman was Asian, and 聯racialized聰 the note.The bank immediately ordered the image redrawn, imposing what a spokesman called a 聯neutral ethnicity聰 for the woman scientist who, now stripped of her 聯Asian聰 features, appears on the circulating note. Her light features appear to be Caucasian.聯The original image was not designed or intended to be a person of a particular ethnic origin,聰 bank spokesman Jeremy Harrison said in an interview, citing policy that eschews depictions of ethnic groups on banknotes.聯But obviously when we got into focus groups, there was some thought the image appeared to represent a particular ethnic group, so modifications were made.聰Harrison declined to provide a copy of the original image, produced by a design team led by Jorge Peral of the Canadian Bank Note Co., which was a test design only and never made it into circulation.Nor would he indicate what specific changes were made to the woman researcher聮s image to give her a so-called 聯neutral ethnicity.聰 He said the images were 聯composites聰 rather than depicting any specific individual.A spokesperson for the Chinese Canadian National Council slammed the bank on Friday for bending to racism.聯The Bank of sa国际传媒 apparently took seriously ... racist comments and feedback from the focus groups and withdrew the image,聰 said May Lui, interim executive director of the group聮s Toronto chapter.聯That was upsetting simply because of the history and longevity of Chinese-Canadians in this country.聰Lui demanded the bank 聯acknowledge their error in caving to the racist feedback.聰Victor Wong, the group聮s national executive director, called on the bank to amend its policy of not depicting visible minorities.聯You聮re erasing all of us,聰 he said from Toronto. 聯Your default then is an image with Caucasian features.聰The Strategic Counsel conducted the October 2009 focus groups in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Fredericton, at a cost of $53,000.The Toronto groups were positive about the image of an Asian woman because 聯it is seen to represent diversity or multiculturalism.聰In Quebec, however, 聯the inclusion of an Asian without representing any other ethnicities was seen to be contentious.聰One person in Fredericton commented: 聯The person on it appears to be of Asian descent which doesn聮t rep(resent) sa国际传媒. It is fairly ugly.聰Mu-Qing Huang, a Chinese-Canadian who has peered into microscopes for biology courses at the University of Toronto, called the bank聮s decision a 聯huge step back.聰聯The fact that an Asian woman聮s features were introduced to the bill ... I think itself is a huge step forward in achieving true multiculturalism in sa国际传媒,聰 Huang, 24, said in an interview in Ottawa.聯But the fact that the proposal was rejected represents a huge step back.聰She said the 聯overly sensitive聰 decision to remove the Asian features suggests prejudice against visible minorities persists in sa国际传媒.聯If sa国际传媒 is truly multicultural and thinks that all cultural groups are equal, then any visible minority should be good enough to represent a country, including (someone with) Asian features.聰Huang, now pursuing an MA at the University of Toronto, came to sa国际传媒 from China with her family at age 12, living in Toronto and Ottawa.The 2006 census found that sa国际传媒聮s population included more than five million people from visible minority groups, of which 1.2 million were Chinese and another 240,000 with ancestry from southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Laos.The Bank of sa国际传媒 introduced the new series of banknotes largely to thwart counterfeiters, though they are also expected to last much longer than the old versions. New $50 notes went into circulation in March, with $20 notes still to come in November.The $50 and $20 banknotes feature a research icebreaker and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial respectively, with no images of ordinary Canadians. Some members of the focus groups said the Vimy memorial looked disturbingly like New York聮s twin towers, brought down by terrorists in 2001.
