Outrage ensued after a Hong Kong TV drama used “brown face” to depict a Filipino domestic helper.

The TV show featured a Canadian-born Chinese actress who darkened her skin to portray a Filipino domestic helper. This triggered heavy criticism.

This was viewed as a biased portrayal of minorities in Hong Kong’s mainstream entertainment industry. In the show, actress Franchesca Wong played the character of domestic helper “Louisa” in a TVB series titled Barrack O’Karma 1968 and the episode which was aired on Tuesday focused on a local couple who hired Louisa as a helper.

Wong was criticized for an Instagram video of her dark make-up following which the video has been taken down.

Phyllis Cheung Fung-mei, executive director of Unison, an NGO that advocates for rights of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, urged that TVB should have been sensitive to its depiction of the various cultural and social groups.