Panda-monium in Malaysia as foreign street artist paints over Penang heritage mural
The twist in the tale? It was an artistic collaboration between the Chinese tourist and the Malaysian painter
In the video, she tells viewers in Chinese that she wanted to “add a panda” because she found the wall “very special”.
She can then be seen painting the black-and-white animal onto the footrest of a scooter in the Girl on Scooter mural. A local resident tries to stop her, but she continues painting before posing beside her finished work.
The clip, which quickly went viral on social media, shows her handing out small panda souvenirs to onlookers and saying that the gesture helped her “complete the drawing successfully”.
Outraged users condemned her actions as disrespectful and unlawful, accusing her of defacing Penang’s cultural heritage.