Her announcement was met with anger by a lot of Chinese people, who remembered a video uploaded earlier this year by Hadid’s sister Bella.
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The video — which shows Hadid squinting her eyes to look like what appears to be a Buddha cookie on their table — angered a lot of people, who proceeded to call her out and drag her on social media.
Hadid's boyfriend Zayn Malik —who is also an Asian — then weighed in and tweeted, "trust me.. she likes asians ;) 👍🏽"
Hadid herself has not commented on the controversy since it happened in February.
Upon finding out that Hadid would be visiting Shanghai for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Chinese people then started flooding her account with comments calling her racist and telling her she wasn't welcome in China.
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Hadid has since disabled comments on her announcement video.
But that didn't stop people from flooding the rest of her Instagram posts with snake and chicken emojis, which is similar in meaning to the snake emoji in Chinese.
A lot of the comments called on Hadid not to go to Shanghai.
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Many also pointed out that Hadid did not apologize for her actions.
"What she did was wrong. That's simple. Are you stupid? Your idol is racist. And she didn't even apologize."
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"Why? Because she was shown being racist in a video. And she didn't even apologize or respond in any way."
And voiced their disappointment in her.
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BuzzFeed News has reached out to Hadid's representatives for comment.
UPDATE
Hadid has shared an apology on her official Weibo page, saying that "it was never my intent to offend anyone through my actions."
The post said that she has "the utmost respect and love for the people of China" and hopes to meet them so that they can "get to know me for me."
She added that she does not "condone hurtful behavior and wants people and fans of all backgrounds to know they are welcomed, loved, and respected around me and by me."
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