Posted on 07/13/2013 10:15:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway
After almost every 'rude Chinese tourist' story, unfortunately, made SCMP.com's top-10 list, I decided to give the question some serious thought
They are seen as pushy, loud, impolite, unruly, and they are everywhere.
And although destination countries welcome the tourism dollars the Chinese spend, they loathe the chaos and hassle some mainland tourists bring upon their cities and other tourists.
“Why can’t they just behave?” people wonder, some aloud.
I have been asking myself the same question in the past months after reporting on the uncivilised, sometimes galling behaviour of some compatriots.
It seems that every time a “rude Chinese tourist" story is published on SCMP.com, it goes straight into the site's top 10 most read articles - one such article even managed to crawl back to the top months after it was posted. So I decided to give the question some serious thought.
I read up on the topic, talked to tourism experts and travel agents and chatted with some of these tourists who are now at the centre of public anger.
It soon dawned on me that the real question to ask is: “Why are the Chinese rude?”
Yong Chen, tourism researcher and post-doctoral fellow at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said most “bad” tourists don’t intend to be “bad” or “tourists”, they are just being themselves - they are being Chinese.
Education makes a difference
Not every Chinese tourist is a rude one, and educated people are usually better behaved than those who have had a lower standard of education, said Chen.
This could be why middle-aged or older tourists who have been deprived of or received little education during China's politically tumultuous times tend to act more unruly. Many of them do not speak English, and some are not fluent Putonghua speakers. Their knowledge of the destination country and its culture is often at best outdated or non-existent.
This might explain the behaviour of a "rogue” mainland couple who recently visited Hong Kong with a group. They called the police and demanded HK$3,000 yuan in compensation after being made to wait two hours for their coach. The travel agency later said the coach had broken down and accused them of “blackmailing”.
Disregard for customs and rules
Jenny Wang, a Beijing-based Maldives travel agent, said uneducated tourists usually turn a blind eye to local rules and customs.
A Chinese man who was recently vacationing at a Maldives resort flipped out after discovering that the restaurant where he wanted to eat was fully booked, Wang said. He yelled threats and slurs at Chinese staff until one member was in tears.
“You cannot reason with these kinds of people,” Wang said. “They think they can do anything with their money.”
But one thing many Chinese vacationers don’t want to do with their money is tip - a custom in some places which many have ignored, Wang said.
Though most travel agents in China would educate their clients about tipping in a foreign country ahead of their trip, most people ended up tipping very little or none.
Some are not used to the idea of tipping, and they fail to understand that staff working at the Maldives resorts, who usually earn a meagre salary, rely heavily on tips, Wang said.
This has created increasing tensions between the Chinese and their hosts. Staff would naturally prefer serving guests from countries with a tipping culture. Other staff have gone after Chinese clients and asked openly for tips, a rare thing for them to do in the past.
Lawless for a reason
Students at Ewha University in Seoul, known for its beautiful campus, have recently complained about an influx of Chinese tourists, said the school.
Apparently taking photos on campus was not enough. Some camera-toting Chinese would also stride into libraries and take photos without the permission of students, according to media reports.
“As much as we want to keep the campus open to the local community,” said a university representative, “we’d like to prioritise our students’ right to study in a quiet and safe environment.”
Ewha resolved the crisis by putting up multi-language signs advising tourists to stay clear of study areas.
It seems that thousands of years after Confucius admonished his students not to “impose on others what you yourself don’t desire", the Chinese now act in quite the opposite way.
Such people, both overseas and at home, selfishly skirted rules for a reason, said Chen.
Living in China, where the rule-of-law doesn’t exist, means everyone has to look out for their own interest. It also means people have little or no respect for laws.
This is bound to happen when ordinary folk are forced to watch their laws being violated every day by their leaders, Chen said, citing the Chinese idiom, shang xing xia xiao, meaning “people in lower class follow what their leaders in the upper class do”.
How long do we have to put up with bad tourists?
China and its people are paying a price for the bad behaviour of their tourists.
A poll by the Public Opinion Programme of the University of Hong Kong recently found that the number of Hongkongers holding negative feelings towards Beijing and mainland Chinese is up by about 40 per cent since November.
Following that survey, SCMP.com conducted another online poll on Wednesday, headlined “What makes some Hongkongers dislike mainland China and its people?”
As of noon, more than 50 per cent readers blamed the negative feelings on “ill-behaved tourists”.
“The Chinese government and travel agencies should take the initiative to educate our tourists,” Chen said, urging co-operation from both authorities and private sectors.
While many argue that historically American and Japanese tourists were also criticised for their bad behaviour when they became wealthy enough and traveled abroad for the first time, Chen said the Chinese should not use this as an excuse.
In fact, the Communist Party's Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilisation and the China National Tourism Administration have recently issued a 128-character-long rhyme to remind tourists of behaving in a “civilised manner” on the road. The topic has also been a big hit on China's social media, where bloggers discuss and criticise the uncivlised behaviour of their compatriots.
But many are not optimistic that the situation will change any time soon.
“Chinese tourists have a long way to go before they will be respected by the world,” said Wang.
Sum Ting Wong.
They’re not rude so much as they come from a culture that has 1 billion people trying to negotiate the same right of way and theft doesn’t carry the same conscience as it does in the West.
It’s also my understanding that Chinese tend to be abrupt when they want to be informal and friendly. For example, if they want somebody to pass the salt, they will point to a person and simply say, “Pass salt.” It’s only when they are acting more formal will words like, “Please”, or “Thank you” will enter the conversation.
“You cannot reason with these kinds of people,” Wang said. “They think they can do anything with their money.”
In fairness, I’ve seen that from all sorts. I’ve seen plenty of American and British tourists make arses of themselves overseas. I still remember my first trip abroad - visiting Ireland in the late 80s. It was one of those guided tour things. I was mortified at the behavior of many of the people on our bus. I remember some bint named “Chickee” who hailed from Queens telling our tour driver he needed to learn to speak English like an American. That sort of thing.
Money can’t buy class, no matter where you’re from.
Seems US has had this problem with the chinese before, they were very understanding.
I was a tourist in China, not Chinese.
My Chinese guide told me if I wanted something, even as simple as buying a coke, I needed to be a little pushy. This was only because with so many people( in the small but overpopulated city I was in) to get service for anything without waiting for hours you needed to get yourself to the front. It felt weird the one time I did it, but nobody got mad, it was just the norm.
They own this country now; they can be as rude as they want.
I have noticed that in my travels to Hong Kong (where SCMP is based) that folks in public come off rude, but it is not intentional. It is a cultural thing, but on steroids. It is the difference between NYC and some town in fly over country, but people from China are ten times worse than NYC. Folks in NYC can be very friendly, and the same in HK. But look out if you are getting on public transportation or if you have no idea where you are going.
Wow, I can’t believe some people who travel haven’t run across this.
Travel the tourist spots in Hawaii. You’ll be convinced in no time, I assure you.
It is just a false perception caused by Americans watching too many Benny Hill reruns.
...And then there’s my MIL, 100% Irish, who told a group of Chinese people, in China, they needed to speak better English if they wanted her money.... As I hid behind my husband...!
haha love it :)
When I was a yute I had a PhD Chinese colleague at JPL. I taught him a little English, he taught me a little Mandarin Chinese. Nice guy, but he was genuinely mystified when I asked him to teach me the Mandarin word for “please”. He had never heard one.
Even the so-called educated Chinese at my company are rude and racist. I have lost respect for Chinese due to my colleagues’ behaviors.
They’re small and cuddly and ready to please...
Welcome to Silicon Valley...
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