Taylor Townsend has apologized after posting a series of videos on Instagram in which she mocked a buffet in China and said “these people are literally killing frogs.”

Townsend, the world No. 1 in doubles, is in Shenzhen, China, representing the United States in the Billie Jean King Cup, the women’s team event. At a dinner with her team-mates, Townsend posted a video of a buffet, focusing on a bowl of sea cucumbers: “This is crazy, this angle is f—— nuts. This is crazy, I’ve never seen one of these up close — especially not to eat.”

She added captions: “This is the craziest thing I’ver seen.. and people eating this,” and “Imma have to talk to HR.. because what the hell.. turtle and bullfrog is WILD.”

Townsend, 29, then posted another video saying: “I’m honestly just so shocked at what I saw in the dinner buffet. And as I go back and I look … These people are literally killing frogs … Bullfrogs. Aren’t those poisonous? Aren’t those the ones that give you warts and boils and stuff? And turtles?

“And the fact that it’s all stewed up with chillies, peppers, and onions … And then you got the sea cucumbers just staring there, with the noodles. The only thing that we eat. All in all I’d give this like a solid 2/10 so far, because this is crazy.”

Townsend made more comments about some of the other dishes, and was then heavily criticised on Chinese social media and accused of cultural insensitivities.

“I understand that I am so privileged as a professional athlete to be able to travel around the world and experience cultural differences,” Townsend said in her apology, which was posted on Wednesday and did not directly reference Chinese cuisine or culture.

“There’s no excuse, there is no words, and I will be better.”

During last year’s run of hard-court tournaments in Asia, from September to November, Polish player Magda Linette attempted to apologize for writing “the virus database has been updated” under a photo taken on a train from Beijing to Wuhan for the Wuhan Open, but was cut short during her on-court interview. Spain’s Paula Badosa also apologized for a photo in which she pulled back her eyelids with chopsticks.

At last month’s U.S. Open, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko told Townsend that she had “no education” at the end of their second-round match. Ostapenko apologized for her comments three days after the incident, in a statement on social media that did not name or acknowledge Townsend. In an earlier statement also posted on social media, Ostapenko had repeated criticisms of Townsend’s tennis etiquette, before denying accusations of racism.

Why Townsend’s comments — and apology — matter

Analysis from James Hansen, senior tennis editor

As with Ostapenko’s telling Townsend that she had “no education” and “no class” at the U.S. Open, Townsend’s comments about the buffet in Shenzhen cannot be divorced from the cultural and racial dynamics that underpin them.

China’s cuisine is one of the richest and regionally diverse in the world, so much so that “Chinese food” is close to meaningless as a label. Many of the dishes that Townsend mocks in her videos — bullfrog, sea cucumber, and braised soft-shell turtle — are delicacies, and a player following the Billie Jean King Cup and WTA Tour calendar from Shenzhen, to Beijing, to Wuhan would experience vastly different cuisines in each city.

But Townsend’s comments did not cause such a stir just for their culinary content. The inaccurate stereotypes of Chinese food as cheap, dirty or otherwise disgusting have been ingrained in American culture for centuries, and reerupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Chinese immigrant restaurateurs, many of whom had simplified or adapted their regional dishes to suit the tastes of a majority White audience in order to make a sustainable living, were then attacked for their food culture’s perceived association with the origins of the novel coronavirus.

Chinese restaurant culture in the U.S. has evolved through the late 1990s and 2000s, with a greater focus on regional specificity and the historic traditions of Chinese cuisine, but the underlying stereotypes have not gone away. Townsend’s comments do not directly address these things, but they are a product of sentiments and stereotypes that go well beyond one player’s personal distaste for sea cucumber.

Her apology also ties her comments to the contours of the tennis calendar. While Townsend and other American and European players are currently far from home for the run of tournaments in Asia that end the season before the ATP and WTA Tour finals in Turin, Italy and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia respectively, tennis players from China, Japan and Korea — who spend most of their years in Europe and the U.S. — are now at home.

This stretch of the season, which follows the conclusion of the four Grand Slams, has for a while highlighted how tennis struggles to deliver a satisfying narrative for fans. But it also highlights a disparity in who spends more time closer to the culture in which they grew up — and, at least to The Athletic’s knowledge, no player from China spent the European clay-court swing gawking at pizza.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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