A whole museum comparing blacks to animals in China. pic.twitter.com/L7AT0IYffm
— ️ (@JloRocz) October 11, 2017
Days after an online outrage and complaints of racism against an exhibition that displayed images of Africans in comparison with wild animals, the Chinese museum pulled down the exhibits.
The Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan displayed the exhibition since late September ahead of the Chinese national Golden Week holiday. This was captured on video and uploaded on Instagram.
The exhibits included a photograph of a roaring lion next to an African man with the same expression; a pensive monkey next to another man; elephants and giraffes next to African children among others.
According to a local destination blog Shangaiist, the ‘This is Africa’ exhibition which started September 28 belongs to Chinese photographer Yu Huiping to “give visitors a sense of ‘primitive life’ in Africa through the interplay of humans, animals, and nature.”
The photographer, who is the vice-president of Hubei Photographers Association, is reported to be a lover of Africa and its wildlife. He titled the exhibits in question with the Chinese idiom: outward appearance follows inner reality.
Asians forgot where they came from pic.twitter.com/EFP7hZ2IWC
— ⓋBananaBill🍌🍌 (@bananabillll) October 12, 2017
The original video which was deleted after it was posted by one of the supposed visitors to the museum, Nigerian Edward E. Duke, had the caption: “首都博物馆 the capital museum in Wuhan, China put pictures of a particular race next to wild animals why? Are they the only race to have impoverished looking.”
This follows a week of the backlash of a Facebook advert by Dove showing a black model turning white after using their body wash. A screenshot of the ad went viral and several people took to Twitter to criticise the beauty brand.
Dove apologized for the ad saying the image “missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully”.
The black model in the ad said it was taken out of context because the campaign was “supposed to be about all skin types deserving gentleness”.
The full #Dove ad has been uploaded pic.twitter.com/17TeRvDjEJ
— HĪP MAGAZINE (@HIPWEEKLY) October 9, 2017
the racist dove ad is a continuation of a long history of racist soap advertising pic.twitter.com/nO7iDT7dxH
— /kaw·reɪdʒ/ (@kawrage) October 8, 2017
So stupid. And #Dove did this same thing just 6 years ago! pic.twitter.com/UCyDqyKRGo
— ThatGirlAtTheParty (@tgatp) October 8, 2017