University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei resigns after calling students 'pigs'

The social media posts under a pseudonym went viral, causing widespread outrage.

A University of Sydney business school tutor has resigned after being caught making a series of derogatory social media posts insulting mainland Chinese students.

Wei Wu, the business school's head corporate finance tutor, resigned from the position on Monday after reports he called his mainland students "pigs" generated widespread outrage in Australia and went viral in mainland China.

Under the pseudonym Pekojima, Mr Wu accused Chinese students of cheating "due to low IQs" on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo.

The posts, mostly made last year, were discovered by students in his class and circulated among the Sydney University community in a petition condemning the remarks.

"The Usyd finance course is very difficult, not sure how many international pigs will hire essay writer [sic] because of their low IQ," read one of the posts, translated by a student who created the petition.

Mr Wu's supporters, including many in the local Australian-Chinese community, insist he was using coded political slang popular with dissidents online, and was being targeted for his dissident work and frequent vocal criticism of China's ruling Communist Party.

Mr Wu's Weibo account has been taken down and Fairfax Media has not reviewed all of his previous posts. But in the posts used as examples in the USyd student petition, the obscure character tun is used rather than zhu, the vastly more commonly used character for pig.

"It [tun] is actually a euphemism used online to refer to guanerdai, the second-generation [offspring] of [Communist Party] officials who have gone overseas to study," Wai Ling Yeung, the recently retired head of Chinese Studies at Curtin University.

"One of the characteristics of these overseas students from very rich families is that their families very closely connected with the party, they are very supportive of the party, sometimes online too, what we refer to as xiaofenhong or 'little pinks'."

Until April last year, Mr Wu was himself a Chinese national when he became an Australian citizen.

Mr Wu's outburst against mainland international students at the University of Sydney became a viral sensation on the Chinese internet and was one of the top trending topics on Weibo late last week.

Reports of the controversy carried by online news portals Sina and Netease garnered more than 300,000 comments and numerous death threats, with many outraged by his antagonism against mainland students and by apparent footage of him burning his Chinese passport and extinguishing the flames in a toilet bowl.

An online counter-petition voicing concerns for the university's internal disciplinary investigation into Mr Wu had over 1000 signatures by Monday afternoon.

"We are concerned that Mr Wu is becoming a victim of the Chinese government's increasingly intrusive attempts to curb voices of dissent among overseas Chinese. Mr Wu has a long track record of critical comments against the Chinese government, its political system and social affairs on social networks," the petition states.

Despite the petition Mr Wu's resignation was accepted by the business school after it concluded its investigation on Monday. His comments were condemned by the Dean of the university's business school, Greg Whitwell.

"Racist, sexist or offensive language is not tolerated at the University of Sydney," said Professor Whitwell.

On Monday the Chinese Community Council of Australia (CCCA) called for Mr Wu's students to launch a class action against the tutor with the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board.

CCCA National President Dr Anthony Pun said the word "pig" was an extremely derogatory remark, of which any interpretation could be considered "racially abusive".

Dr Pun said Mr Wu's political views were no defence for his actions.

On Monday, Mr Wu asked for forgiveness.

"I would like to sincerely apologise for the inappropriate and disrespectful comments I made on the internet. I will refrain from such remarks in the future. I have also resigned from my employment at the University of Sydney," he said via a statement released by the university.

The controversy is the latest setback to international student relations to hit the school, a market now worth up to $17 billion.

In April, a sudden graduation date change threatened to put up to 80 per cent of the university's master of management students and their families thousands of dollars out of pocket for air fares, accommodation and visas they had already purchased.

Last year, the Chinese consulate appealed to the university when 37 per cent of Chinese students were failed in one of the university's business courses, drawing accusations of bias towards non-native English speakers.

The story University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei resigns after calling students 'pigs' first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Source: University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei resigns after calling students 'pigs'