Luo Xinran, a 30-year-old from Zhejiang, claimed China’s reluctance to embrace the live-action remake was a response to Western ideas about diversity and inclusiveness.

“People might dislike political correctness because they think it is formative and does not solve any problems,” she said.

“Baizuo”, the Chinese term for Western liberalism, has come to symbolise a form of anti-woke crusade in China that suggests European and American ideals of multiculturalism and progressive politics are out of touch with the rest of the world. The concept, fuelled in part by the Chinese government, feeds into a growing tide of Chinese nationalism and a narrative of Western decline. In this ideology, workers are more focused on driving the economy than including minorities in it.

“In China, a key feature of public opinion is the hostility towards Western progressive politics,” said Dr Altman Peng, assistant professor of intercultural communication at the University of Warwick, who argues that a rising number of Chinese nationalists are also embracing xenophobic values.

“The Little Mermaid simply provides a social media event for racists to express their toxic views conditioned upon the historically entrenched anti-black racism in China.”

China has its own long history of racism against non-Han minorities including the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Mongols in northern China.

“China’s anti-black racism stems from Han supremacism, which perpetuates prejudice and discrimination by the ethnic majority, the Han people, against both domestic ethnic minorities and foreign nationals,” Peng said.

Sections of the Chinese public were also racist towards black communities as the country opened up to migrants from the 1970s onwards.

“The pre-existing anti-black racism has become increasingly prevalent in Chinese society without state interference, often perpetuated through the media’s stereotypical portrayal of African immigrants and students,” Peng said.

Dr Fan Yang, a postdoctoral research fellow investigating Chinese digital technology at Deakin University, said some of those perceptions were being entrenched by automated artificial intelligence social media filters and photo editing techniques now popular across Asia.

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“The beauty standard is characterised by so-called ‘bai you shou’ – meaning whiteness, child-likeness, slimness and femininity. To some extent, Bailey isn’t able to fit into the audience’s conventional aesthetics,” Yang said.

“The Chinese audience has been constantly exposed to this kind of dominant aesthetic with very little diversity involved. The anomaly has been made to be the norm.”

Black critics said the film had made viewers confront uncomfortable realities.

“It is racism,” said British film and television writer Ellen Jones. “People essentially don’t want to recognise racism because it disrupts their lifestyles or because then they have to do something about it.

“I know anti-black racism exists in Asia, just as anti-Asian racism exists in black communities.”