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See the Culturally Confused Rihanna Video From Coldplay’s Tour

Rihanna

Rihanna, undoubtedly still reeling from being shamed by a pair of Aussie podcasters, has something new to worry about today (other than bloggers saying she was making “strange noises” at the Time 100 gala). The video for her Coldplay collaboration “Princess of China” that plays during Chris Martin and Co.’s current tour in support of Mylo Xyloto has hit the web, and as Popdust points out, there’s an awful lot of nü-Orientalism going on here for a clip clocking in under three minutes.

Pop music has had a long, strange relationship with Asia — Gwen Stefani and Nicki Minaj are already making gobs off their Harajuku obsessions, not to mention the western world’s current fascination with K-Pop. But in this case, directors Adria Petty and Alan Bibby paired a song called “Princess of China” with Hindu iconography when the religion composes only 0.01 percent of the Chinese population. Just saying. Watch the clip, which seems to take cues from Minaj’s own, er, exciting takes on Eastern cultures in the form of those killer claws:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kwJqnWRRLfQ