Foreign Street Artist Flamed Online For Painting Over Penang Mural, Turns Out She Had Permission From Owner
She was accused of defacing a popular mural on a house at Chew Jetty in George Town, Penang.
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A tourist from China known as Shen Shishi or “Shi Shi” on Chinese social platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu), recently landed in a hotpot of Malaysian fury after she was accused of defacing the famed “Girl on Scooter” mural at Chew Jetty in George Town, Penang.
Malaysians were quick to criticise her actions after a video of her painting a panda over the mural went viral.
Some claimed that there were locals who told her to stop “vandalising” the original street art, while others accused her of being disrespectful of an artist’s work.
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Because of the growing public outrage, Shen at some point stepped forward to explain the incident, adding that everyone had misunderstood the situation.
She was invited by the original artist to paint over the mural
The mural’s original artist, Zhou Huaxing, spoke to Chinese news outlet Sin Chew Daily and said he had personally invited Shen to paint the panda on his mural.
“I came across Shen’s artwork on RedNote and found it creative, so I invited her to add a touch of her style to the mural.
“I’m actually a care dealer but I’ve always had a passion for art and even told Shen that she should specialise in painting pandas to build her reputation,” Zhou told Sin Chew Daily.
He added that he and Shen even had dinner together and shared ideas about art before she returned to Chongqing.
How it became a misunderstanding
According to Zhou’s sister, she was not aware of her brother’s arrangement with Shen and did not expect the Chinese painter’s arrival.
“A neighbour informed me that someone was painting on the wall and I immediately called my brother, but he told me to let her continue.
“We eventually settled the incident peacefully and Shen gave both my brother and I a panda fridge magnet as a souvenir,” she said.
Zhou also told Sin Chew that he did not expect the clip to cause so much controversy and asked netizens to stop criticising Shen, adding that her addition to his mural actually attracted more visitors.
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