iQiyi apologizes, removes Chinese drama 'Make My Heart Smile' for offending Filipino workers

MANILA, Philippines — Controversial Chinese drama (C-drama) "Make My Heart Smile" has been removed from the platform that streams it.

Streaming platform iQiyi is aware of the growing reactions to a scene on the drama that premiered last February 6. 

"We are aware of the growing reactions to a scene on the show that we have licensed - 'MAKE MY HEART SMILE' - that puts Filipina overseas workers in a negative light. It is not our intention to offend and upset our Filipino subscribers and we are sorry. The show has been removed from the platform and we are continuously working towards making sure that incidents like this do not happen again," read iQiyi's statement sent to Philstar.com.

The drama trended this week after a netizen posted a screenshot of a scene where the male lead character played by Luo Zheng remarked "You look like a Filipino maid" to the female character who was trying on different outfits. 

It is categorized as a youth romance drama set for 24 episodes. 

"I’ve been a fan of Chinese dramas as far as I can remember. However, this is the first drama I have watched, very insulting. I specially waited this drama to be available because I love the line up of the characters. I did not know who are responsible for it, the producer who literally made to insult Filipinos, the actors who did not even tried (sic) to talk about how degrading that line is or the whole production team. Producer do know that there are many Filipino people watching Chinese drama, but because of that line, I think your drama should be drop. It’s disgusting. Again, Don’t watch, Don’t try," wrote MelonCat on the review page of the drama on MyDramaList.

RELATED: 'Make My Heart Smile' Chinese drama fails to make netizens smile over alleged racial slur