Toooo bad! Chinese meseum photo series comparing black people to animals sparks global outrage

Picture of an African boy juxtaposed with a chimpanzee

The disturbing images juxtapose photos of black people with those of lions, chimpanzees, giraffes, leopards and baboons have sparked global outrage.

The images created by a Chinese artist, You Huiping, was part of an exhibition called,
"This is Africa".

According to New York Times, the 150 photographs juxtaposes pictures of black Africans with pictures of wild animals making an analogous facial expression or gesture. in other words, comparing black people to animals.

The series is titled ”相由心生,” a Chinese idiom that, according to The Shanghaiist, translates to something like “outward appearance follows inner reality.”

The photos went viral after a Nigerian,Edward Duke, who toured the museum posted an image of them on Instagram. “The capital museum in Wuhan, China put pictures of a particular race next to wild animals why?” the caption read, tagging news outlets including CNN and BBC.

The photos were however, taken down after receiving a slew of complaints. Wang Yuejun, a curator at the museum, told The New York Times that he was responsible for exhibiting the people’s and animals’ faces side by side. “In Chinese proverbs, animals are always used for admiration and compliment,” he said. After realizing that the images “hurt the feelings of the African tribes people,” he opted to remove them. The Shanghaist, condemned the images, calling it “astonishingly offensive.”

China has a nasty track record of exhibiting casual racism. On Thursday, the popular app WeChat apologized after Ann James, a black American living in Shanghai, discovered its built-in translation feature translated the Chinese phrase that commonly means “black foreigner” to the N-word.

See more photos below;

The photo series is titled ”相由心生,” a Chinese idiom that, according to The Shanghaiist, translates to something like “outward appearance follows inner reality.” indeed!! Is the young man insinuating that Africans are animal?? Well that is a question left for him to answer.....

Source: New York Times