Despite a petition containing the signatures of over 100 Chinese students, Salient editor Tristan Egarr has resisted calls to apologise for a recent magazine cover that depicted a naked Hu Jiantao wrapped in a Chinese flag, pointing out that making fun of political leaders “is an important part of what Salient does.”
On the cover of Salient’s 26 May issue, Hu, President of the People’s Republic of China, is shown apparently wearing only a large flag. The picture was created by imposing Hu’s head on an anonymous torso using digital image editing software Photoshop.
The cover prompted six complaints that were printed in Salient’s Holiday Special issue, published 3 June. “Fuck you stupid Kiwi birdy, you are mother fucker dirtied Chinese National Leader and Flag, you are son of the bitch,” one read.
Another asked Salient staff: “Do you have girl friend [sic], wife and mother? i will collect their photoes [sic] from now, and i will use photoshop to put their head and prostitute’s body together, and post these photo to every special web site and forum, then leave your phone number there.”
Others called for Salient to apologise for what they described as a “disgusting” and “inappropriate” image.
A group of Chinese students are also accused of removing a stack of approximately 50 magazines from the University’s Karori campus. Egarr says he was informed of the action by a staff member at the VUWSA office, who was approached by the students carrying the removed magazines and was instructed to “get rid of” them.
Egarr says he later met with a small group of Chinese students during the mid-year break. The group was led by the president of the Chinese Students’ Association Junfeng Wu, who also acts as the International Officer of the University’s Students’ Association (VUWSA) as William Wu.
The group presented a petition signed by 133 students and staff, most of them Chinese. Witnesses described the incident as a “heated confrontation.”
According to Egarr, the group of students said that they were offended by the timing of the cover, which was published two weeks after the Sichuan earthquake that reportedly killed over 60,000 people in China.
“We spent about an hour talking. They said that they didn’t mind us making fun of Hu Jiantao, but that they were hurt that we were insulting Chinese people so soon after the earthquake,” Egarr said. “But the petition was about Hu Jiantao.”
The petition requests an apology from Salient for “[depicting] the Chinese president Hu Jiantao in an inappropriate manner.” No reference is made to the timing of the cover. “The timing is one point,” Wu said. “Another point is that the national flag represents a country.”
He said he had been personally offended by the cover.
“It was a very bad time with the earthquake and [the cover] made the situation worse… [especially] when the Chinese government is doing well for the people [in the aftermath of the earthquake].”
However, Wu added that he believed students would still have considered the cover “highly offensive” had it been published at a different time.
According to Egarr, the reaction was indicative of the fact that unlike China, a free press operated in New Zealand. “We’re used to it, whereas they may not be.”
While he conceded that there were limits to free speech, he believed that the cover was well within those limits.
Wu, who claimed that he had received complaints from both Chinese and non- Chinese students about the cover, said that cultural differences could not be blamed. “I agree with the right to free speech but you need to consider other people’s feelings,” he said.
“Chinese students [offended by the cover] pay money to support Salient and Salient insults them. They want an apology.”
Egarr pointed out that the magazine had made fun of other political figures in the past, including Helen Clark, George W Bush and John Howard.
“I don’t want to be a dick… [But] we can’t apologise to [the Chinese students] if we haven’t apologised to anyone else [we have made fun of]. It’s important that we make fun of political leaders.”
Tim Wang, a Chinese student who has been living in New Zealand for 15 years, told Salient that many Chinese people considered the president to represent them. “[So] what you do to the president, you do to the Chinese people.”
“The reaction depends on the person… Personally at first I was kind of a little surprised. Some of my friends were offended. In New Zealand you are more used to political satire.”
A non-Chinese student, Huyen Nguyn, said that Chinese people were nationalistic. “If you offend Helen Clark, you don’t offend people in New Zealand.”
She added that Salient is “supposed to be offensive.”
When asked whether the Chinese students intended to take further action over the cover, Wu told Salient: “I can’t say because I just want [Egarr] to apologise.”