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I find this wholly embarrassing as someone who is ethnically Chinese. This is not an isolated incident. I have personally witnessed domestic and international C
by yunong 13y ago
I find this wholly embarrassing as someone who is ethnically Chinese. This is not an isolated incident. I have personally witnessed domestic and international Chinese tourists behaving poorly, impolitely and without any consideration for the artifacts and other tourists. As an example -- whilst visiting the Ming tombs in Beijing, Ding Ling, to be specific, a couple let their child behind the cordoned off area to sit on the emperor's throne. This was a priceless 800 year old artifact and when I gently remarked upon this to them, it fell on deaf ears. Most warning signs are patently ignored -- examples such as smokers on the great wall, photographers in Buddhist Temples, screaming children in museums are just par for the course.
You have no idea how depressing it is to see the Great Wall of China littered with cigarette butts, or witnessing a small child defecating in the corner of the Forbidden City with the full blessing of its parent.
I would even go so far as to say that most people don't think the "rules" apply to them. This is true not just in tourism, but in everyday life. Any visitor to China will tell you stories of smokers in the pristine bathrooms of Beijing Capital Airport, or the subways, and people spitting on the street, jaywalking, or queue jumping.
Some personal pet peeves of mine include -- people getting on to subway cars before allowing passengers to get off, smoking in clearly designated non-smoking areas, littering anywhere and everywhere, line cutting, pushing and shoving others, blasting music from ipads on planes, and driving in the emergency lane on freeways.
This poor behaviour has only recently gained international attention because Chinese people have become more affluent and started travelling outside of China. However, prosperity doesn't correlate with class. Unless the Chinese government take drastic steps to cure this problem at home first -- the crass perception of its people will only perpetuate in the west as more and more start to travel internationally. Perhaps a system like Singapore where violations are fined severely might work -- provided it's implemented across the board everywhere.
Signed -- an embarrassed Chinese Canadian.
- ekianjo 13y agoI can only relate here and I have seen the things you mentioned in the Forbidden city and the Great Wall as well. Not too long ago I was in Thailand (Pukhet), in a hotel resort for a couple of days off, and a couple of Chinese tourists came from the beach and washed their feet in the hotel swimming pool where everyone was swimming. Not embarrassed the least to do that. While there was a special hose, labeled and clearly visible for this particular use a few meters away for people to clean up their feet when coming back from the beach. On another occasion, while flying domestically in China, I saw a guy just a couple of seats away from me on the left spitting on the aircraft floor several times during the flight. I was like... "huh?". I can kind of understand people spitting on the floor, outside, but in actual public transport? Seriously? I have no idea what is going through their heads and why they even think it's remotely acceptable to do this. Would they like it if someone did it to them?
- msie 13y agoDid you tell them to stop it? I think a lot of problems like this would be solved if someone worked up the courage to speak up. It could have just been a major misunderstanding. Maybe they really didn't see the hose or thought it was only used for emergencies. I've seen people of all races do stupid things.
- seabrookmx 13y agoWhile I agree with you in that we shouldn't stereotype, this is a cultural issue, not a racial one. Like the top level comment above this states, a Chinese Canadian is going to have vastly different customs. The article is referring to inconsiderate trends in Chinese culture, not Chinese race.
- msie 13y agoAnd yet, there is a lot of condemnation from the mainland Chinese themselves. Anyways, regardless of who is doing it, I think it's better to let them know they are doing it wrong, right when they are doing it because: 1) maybe they innocently don't know better and want to know better 2) you don't want that resentment to fester in your mind 3) you don't want to take out that resentment on someone else of the same race (which always seem to be happen) Much easier said than done of course.
- ekianjo 13y agoEven if you did not see the hose, I would never even think of washing my feet in the water where people are swimming. It's like puking into someone's plate, you just don't do this kind of things, there's not way you can justify by "i didn't know". And it's not about race, it's about culture. I have no problems with Chinese people who have been educated in other countries. But people coming from Mainland China, it's almost systematic: they don't care and act just like they were homeless or something, not matter how rich they are. (and the ones I saw were rich to be able to stay where they were staying).
- msie 13y ago
- meerkat 13y agoDo British Canadians try as hard to distance themselves from soccer hooligans? Not condemning you, but just wondering about this sad state of affairs that requires you to comment that not all Chinese are alike.