“International student pigs”: Business School head tutor under fire for alleged racist comments
Naaman Zhou and Max Hall report.
Wu Wui, Corporate Finance II Header tutor
Wu Wei, the head tutor of the Business school subject FINC2012 (Corporate Finance II), has allegedly called Chinese students “pigs” in a series of posts to social media.
“One of those [Chinese] international student pigs told me that, on behalf of the Australian-Chinese international student community, I have brought shame upon them all.
“USyd’s finance course is very hard – who knows how much money you low-IQ international pigs need to spend to pay for all those essaywriters,” a post, translated here from Chinese, read.
In other posts to Weibo, allegedly made by Wu, the user is filmed burning a Chinese passport and wrote that “….all Chinese students do is complain about their school and their courses, it’s all worthless garbage”.
In a comment attached to a screenshot of the email offering him the position of tutor, the user wrote that they couldn’t wait to “start misleading our students”.
Students took to social media to express outrage at his comments. In a public post that was shared over 180 times by Thursday morning, Evin Wang, a student of Wu’s, expressed concern for Chinese international students.
“As a Chinese student, I feel very insecure in his tutorials and lectures, because of how clearly he shows his HATE towards China and the Chinese people. He makes me wonder, if he hates Chinese so much, how could he possibly teach Chinese students without any prejudice?” Wang said.
Chinese students Jasmine Yu, Angel Zhao, Emma Liu and Alexander Shu called for Mr Wu’s resignation in a statement. “We feel that is it extremely inappropriate for a University of Sydney staff member to be making such racist and discriminatory comments on a public platform, regardless of what ethnic background or nationality he is.”
Wu was born in China but recently became an Australian citizen.
The Sydney University Business Society circulated a petition Wednesday night condemning his “racist and humiliating comments,” labelling the posts “appalling, shameful and unacceptable”.
“As a liaison between students and the Business School, we will not tolerate this behaviour, and will seek to hold those responsible, accountable for their actions,” the petition read.
A group chat involving over 350 Chinese students is being used to discuss and coordinate their response to the allegations.
Dean of the Business School, Professor Greg Whitwell, said “the Business School and the University of Sydney note the allegations made against a tutor and views them extremely seriously. The Business School is currently investigating these allegations.”
Mr Wu did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Translator credit: Tracey Yeung