China's clothing brand criticised for controversial kids' shirt saying 'welcome to hell'

China’s top clothing brand JNBY has apologised after drawing backlash for producing children’s shirt with printed phrases saying “welcome to hell” and “let me touch you." As per a reoport by BBC, the brand has a history of producing controversial clothing items. For instance, one of their designs had images of people identified as Indians being shot at along with phrases such as “The whole place is full of Indians. I will take this gun and blow them to pieces.”

References of Grim Reaper, Hell

Reportedly, the children's shirt which also featured images of Grim Reaper, was pulled out by JNBY. This happened after a mother of a child criticised the shirt online, and it spread like wildfire. She said that her family bought the JNBY item for her four-year-old without understanding the meaning. The media outlet stated that it has emerged that JNBY has produced controversial clothing in the past as well. The unhappy mother took to the Chinese social media platform Weibo and reportedly said, “Welcome to hell. Excuse me? Who are you welcoming?”

"Place is full of Indians, will take this gun blow them to pieces" the shirt's design said 

Since then, people have shared photos of other controversial pieces produced by the Hong Kong-listed firm which reportedly included a black coat allegedly with an image of a person being shot by arrows. The words accompanying the image stated, “The whole place is full of Indians. I will take this gun and blow them to pieces.”

Reportedly, several Weibo users have questioned why JNBY has not been penalised before. One person has commented on the social media platform, “I don't know if the designs were deliberate, but surely there are others in the whole company who can understand their meaning?”. As per the report, the person referred to how it is not common for some of the Chinese brands to print texts in other languages in their items. 

JNBY apologised on social media

BBC stated that JNBY has issued an apology on an application similar to Instagram, Xiaohongshu and said that it received complaints about “inappropriate prints” on its designs and was sorry for the same. It added that the brand’s design philosophy has always been “freedom of imagination” and that it is original intention was to put out more “unique” creations. The company reportedly said, “But we also understand that what's most important is to pass on good values” saying that it has dealt with the incident as a “warning.” JNBY said, “In future, we will do better in incorporating innovative and creative designs with good values."

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