It certainly is embarrassing to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

Each year, its devoted censors make every effort to ensure the planet's most-watched TV show at the lunar New Year's Eve, broadcast live by China Central Television, stays politically correct.

It may sound unfair to the show's producers. They no doubt tried their best to fulfill the impossible mission of entertaining viewers of every taste, while guaranteeing that every intended message is conveyed, properly.

There have already been angry retorts received that an unnecessary fuss is being made.

For many of the show's reportedly 690-million-or-so audience, a program like this is all about being happy, and funny.

The Administration may pretend no protest has been heard. CCTV may shrug off the request for an apology. Fans may continue to disparage the whistleblowers for being unfunny.

Yet, unpopular as they may be, the naysayers have brought up a topic that should not be swept under the carpet in a country that calls itself civilized, and which aspires to flaunt its soft power globally.

As their critics say, 25 people are negligible in a crowd of 690 million. But the letter those 25 have jointly signed protesting at the undisguised discrimination in the high-profile show, should put our nation of 1.3 billion to shame.

Quoting an "emergency consultation" by concerned viewers, the letter said the show on "at least 44" occasions demonstrated barefaced discrimination against certain groups, including single women of marriageable age and women of "manly" manners, short people, southerners, stay-at-home moms, domestic workers and senior citizens, among others.

Besides asking the Administration to stop reruns of some of the problematic content, and CCTV to openly apologize, the protesters urged the former to act and root out any discrimination based on gender, region, age, stature and disabilities in China's media.

That it was only 25 people, most of whom described themselves as feminists, who found the show offensive and protested does not render their concerns unworthy.

On the contrary, it is an essential topic that has been ignored for far too long because of our collective insensitivity.

We applaud the protesters for making such a long overdue wake-up call. We in particular admire their endeavor to remind the authorities of what they have committed to regarding non-discrimination.

No matter whether they are willing to meet the protesters' demands, both the Administration and CCTV should review the Beijing Declaration of the Fourth World Women's Conference, held in 1995, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and General Principles of the Civil Law, and do some serious soul-searching.

It would be a shame if political correctness in this country does not incorporate respect for dignity of its citizens.

(China Daily USA 02/25/2015 page11)