Bank of Canada Pulled Original Image For $100 Banknote Due To “Asian-ness”

By Xxxtine | Friday, August 17, 2012 | 8 Comments

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CPT115049635 high Bank of Canada Pulled Original Image For $100 Banknote Due To Asian ness
The Bank of Canada had decided to de-Asianize the original image of a woman looking into a microscope for its $100 banknote after 8 focus groups across the country raised questions about her ethnicity.

“The image, alongside a bottle of insulin, was meant to celebrate Canada’s medical innovations.”

Despite the Bank of Canada’s policy that “eschews depictions of ethnic groups on banknotes”, a particular ethnicity seemed to emerge amongst the focus groups. Not surprising, the Toronto groups felt it represented diversity or multiculturalism where as Quebec felt that “the inclusion of an Asian without representing any other ethnicities was seen to be contentious.” A person in Fredericton called it ugly. Similar to Atlanta’s Gold/Yellow line, some felt that it was a stereotype for such a depiction of achievements in science and technology to be a representation of wealth on the $100 banknote to be that of an Asian.

Taking into consideration all sides, I would lean towards there being more positives than negatives to having someone of a seeming Asian ethnicity on a banknote. I will give some credence to Quebec’s inclusion of all ethnicities since the image was perceived as Asian. I wouldn’t call it ugly, just boring. When it comes down to it, people would eventually get over it, so I don’t exactly get why the Bank of Canada a) needed to do a focus group and b) cared enough to change it since the image was not intended to depict any ethnicity.

Do I believe it’s a step back? Yes. Do I care overall? No. It’s not like I regularly get and hold onto $100 banknotes, nor do I fawn over and/ or frame like an art piece. It however would be a source of pride to have such an unintended representation on a Canadian banknote for the 5 mins I may be holding onto one.

The other oddity is, with the bottle of insulin included in the banknote, why couldn’t they just have an image of Banting and Best?

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

happyappa

I agree about Banting and Best, but they decide to do a “neutral ethnicity” of this woman which defaults to Caucasian? What about all of the other groups? How is that inclusion of all ethnicities? It doesn’t affect me directly, I don’t use the notes, but I’m still angry about it.
The person in Fredericton is a jerk for calling it ugly for having someone who “appears to be Asian” on it. It doesn’t represent Canada? And they’re de-Asianizing it, and that’s supposed to represent Canada?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ahmed-Sanchez-De-La-Cruz-Kim/58700922 Ahmed Sanchez De La Cruz Kim

I guess the most neutral thing would probably be to not put any people but animals or objects such as monuments or scenery.
xxxtine

Apparently the memorial for the Battle of Vimy was also of concern due to its twin structures evoking the memory of the Twin Towers of 911. … That and the scantily clad people in the structure.
Luke Nguyen

That’s quite strange. The woman in the picture looks more caucasian to me than asian. Her bone structure (lower jaw) does not look asian at all. I can see how some people might eschew this as such because of the context, but her bone structure are caucasian, not asian.
m_wei

racebending!
http://www.facebook.com/elliottback Elliott C. Bäck

I’d love to see Banting (to whom I am related) on a note!
http://www.myspace.com/krantzstone Krantzstone

I think I read somewhere that the original focus group was worried that depicting an Asian scientist could be feeding into the stereotype of Asians being scientists/nerdy. To be honest, at least for me personally, I’d still rather see more images of Asians, even if it’s in a stereotypical role such as scientist, than not see any at all. It’s not like it’s a caricatured portrayal of the stereotype, anyway, with glasses and buckteeth. ;P
timat8asians

The picture is the “new” image with the “Asian-ness” removed. They never publicly released the original “Asian” image

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