China’s Foreign Ministry Accidentally Lodges Complaint Over Wu-Tang T-Shirt

China’s Foreign Ministry was left holding the stick this week, having misinterpreted the punchline of a particularly intercultural graphic tee.

In a press conference, a journalist from state-funded news outlet The Paper asked officials about staff members at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, who had apparently been photographed wearing T-shirts with images of a “Wuhan bat” design.

China's Foreign Ministry says it has lodged a solemn representation with the Canadian Embassy over reports staff ordered t-shirts last year with "Wuhan" and a "bat symbol." Per blogger Zhou Xiaoping, this is the image. Any hip-hop fan can tell you though that's a W for the Wu pic.twitter.com/ooTFzh2oRn

— Austin Ramzy (@austinramzy) February 1, 2021

“We have also taken notice,” said Wang Wenbin, the ministry’s spokesperson. “Covid-19 is the common enemy of mankind. Both the WHO and the international community clearly oppose the association of the virus with specific countries.”

“Those involved are acting seriously inconsistent, deviating from the stance of Canada’s government,” he concluded. “The Chinese side is shocked by this and has lodged stern representations with the Canadian Embassy in China, demanding that the Canadian side immediately thoroughly investigate the incident and give China a clear explanation.”

Yikes. The only problem? There was no “Wuhan bat” design.

The design was, in fact, a play on the logo of seminal hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

Related:

Wu-Tang Slang: An Abridged Glossary of Hip Hop’s Most Iconic Group

Breaking down the broad strokes of winding kung fu allusions and New York imagery that make up the incomparable and eternal Wu-Tang Clan

Article Sep 03, 2019

Blogger Zhou Xiaoping wrote up the story in Mandarin — not only were staff at the Canadian Embassy wearing the shirts, but they had custom-ordered the clothing themselves.

“The T-shirt logo designed by a member of the embassy shows a stylized W, and is not intended to represent a bat,” said a spokesperson for Canada’s foreign service. “It was created for the team of embassy staff working on repatriation of Canadians from Wuhan in early 2020. We regret the misunderstanding.”

It should be noted, other variations of this joke are making the rounds online, and some of them do include xenophobic bat imagery. But it’s not surprising that a room of aging diplomats may have failed to fully grasp those details.

On Chinese social media platform Weibo, some commenters were up in arms over the perceived sleight. But on Twitter, it was a different story, as users delighted in the moment of cultural disconnect.

I'm conflicted because I want this shirt https://t.co/uN1bmf40bQ

— Rui Zhong 钟瑞 (@rzhongnotes) February 2, 2021