Activists in Beijing and Wuhan Successfully Spike Art Exhibit That Compared Africans to Animals

Racism was not just permitted, but instead elevated to an art form at a recent Hubei Provincial Museum exhibit in Wuhan (首都博物馆). The showing of works by Chinese photographer Yu Huiping featured photos of animals and people from Africa side-by-side, in a manner swiftly deemed derogatory by many social media users. Members of the African expat community in both Wuhan and Beijing, particularly a university student from each city, rallied together and, via diplomatic channels at embassies in the capital, were able to reach the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and convince them to remove the exhibit by Oct 12.

But the activists’ efforts won’t stop there. “The photographer and the museums need to issue a formal apology for such a senseless and brainless display,” one of the activists, who hails from Nigeria and spoke to the Beijinger under the condition of anonymity, said after the exhibit was pulled. “Furthermore they should have an exhibit to show what Africa is truly like.”

This campaign against the portion of the exhibit with these controversial photos gained momentum shortly after the Golden Week holiday, when a clearly mortified attendee took a video of the exhibit before sharing it on social media. The clip, which showed frame after frame of African people, many of them children, alongside various jungle animals, quickly went viral, especially among outraged African expats throughout China and beyond. Many of those social media users also shared an article about the clip posted by Nigerian news outlet The Punch and The Shanghaiist. The latter noted: "The part of the exhibit in which faces of Africans are placed alongside those of animals is titled '相由心生,' a Chinese idiom that means something like 'outward appearance follows inner reality.'"

The aforementioned activist who granted an interview to the Beijinger said he was especially shocked to learn just how many Chinese people might have seen the exhibit: at least 250,000 over the October break alone, according to his diplomat friends who helped convince the Ministry to spike the exhibit.

“That means you had Chinese children leaving the museum equating, in their minds, the people and animals of Africa as one. And what will those kids grow up into?” he said.

He added that simply removing the images won’t suffice because of the root issues that lead the photographer to snap the pictures in the first place. “It would take a lot of work for you to get such photos, and show animals and humans in the same light – I wouldn’t be surprised if he photographed the animals first and then asked the people to mimic them, so that he could show them side-by-side,” the activist said, adding: “It’s clearly someone working toward a preconceived notion. And what they of course should be doing is going to Africa and showing what is actually there.” He hopes that all the controversy will inspire the museum in Wuhan and others across China to put on far more enlightened exhibits about African culture.

That sentiment is, unsurprisingly, shared by many African expats living in Beijing, be they involved in the campaign against the exhibit or not. A prime example of the latter is one man who works in Beijing to promote tourism in his native Ethiopia, and who asked not to be named, who put it simply when asked how he felt about the situation: “What would you feel if someone called you a ‘white monkey’ or an ‘Asian monkey’?” he asked, as a way for other Beijing residents to consider just how offensive the exhibit was. And if the pictures had not been removed, and further media coverage was given to the controversy, he felt that “it could ruin relationships between China and Africa, in all aspects of travel and trade. If they (Chinese people) do not respect other races, the other races will look down on them.”

Berthold Winkler, a prominent vlogger and former BLCU student known for his videos about life as an African expat in China, had an even more pointed reaction to the news. Winkler, who hails from Ghana and goes by “Mr. Maya” in his videos, called the exhibit “ridiculous” and told tbj, “Man, it’s not right to be comparing animals with human beings. Not right at all. They need to apologize.”

Aside from an apology, Mgassa "Kíddö" Tanda (a Tanzanian expat who co-founded the now-closed Common Room bar in Andingmen earlier this year) hopes for even greater efforts from Chinese officials. “It's about time they stop those few people with prejudice towards Africa spoiling the good relationship Chinese people have had with Africans for many years. History can  and hopefully will witness the brotherhood Chinese and Africans have had for so long.”

Samantha Sibanda, a Beijing-based Zimbabwean expat known for her community work (the Global Times recently profiled her work to found Beijing’s Africa Night Speech Contest, Discover Africa Academy, the city’s Pride of Africa Asia Awards, and other efforts) helped kickstart the campaign against the exhibit. After the photos were taken down, she posted on her WeChat moments: “We DID IT! We managed to get the museum to take the pictures down before the set end date of the exhibition,” before going on to thank “all those that helped us see this through, the African community and students in China, the African Embassies, the Chinese Ministry of Culture, the media that got in touch with me and helped blow this out, some Chinese students people who also stood with us. Most of all I would like to thank two students, one here in Beijing and one in Wuhan, who were the first to take these pictures and who gave them to me.”

Though she declined to be interviewed for this story, Sibanda said she was fine with her WeChat post being excerpted, and she also introduced the Beijinger to the aforementioned activist who asked not to be named. She ended that WeChat post by writing: “Our campaign is still going on, as it is not about having the pictures taken down, but trying to educate these people about who we really are … There is so much more about Africa that the world needs to know.”

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle

Photos: Shanghaiist, Samantha Sibanda