China sick of pushy citizens chanting 'China!' to get their way on holiday

Overly-patriotic behaviour increasingly frowned upon.

Belmont Lay | February 16, 2018, 12:02 AM

China is sick of its citizens who go on holiday but act all uncouth and obnoxious just to get their way.

This appears to be the prevailing top-down state-amplified sentiment reported in Global Times, an English propaganda outlet from China that tries to explain the country and its practices to the rest of the world.

Three incidents in one week

In its Feb. 12 article, Global Times highlighted the three major incidents in just one week in January 2018 where Chinese tourists holidaying overseas caused a ruckus in the airport just to get their way.

Jan. 24: Tokyo, Japan

• Clashed with Japanese police and started singing national anthem.

Jan. 27: Sri Lanka

• 150 passengers started chanting, which caused the embassy to issue a statement.

Jan. 29: Tehran, Iran

• The embassy personnel had to travel on snow covered roads for four hours to resolve the dispute personally.

This is a video of the Tehran incident:

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Worse, they broke out into chants of "China!", as if winning or losing in those situations was a matter of patriotism and nationalism, with China's backing.

Because it was not even about winning or losing in the first place, as it was unforeseen circumstances, such as foul weather, that caused the tourists to get stuck in the airports in the first place.

The article noted that these incidents were widely slammed by the Chinese back home and have been described as "humiliating".

Enthusiastic apologist

Unfortunately, as this article is published by Global Times, the attempt to explain away the bad behaviour of these Chinese as a matter of tradition and culture can be gleaned by reading between the lines.

A professor of public administration in a Chinese university was quoted as explaining that this phenomenon of overly-nationalistic citizens is due to them being older and having lived through an era where every aspect of life was intertwined with politics.

The professor said: "Many Chinese traveling abroad are retired senior citizens who experienced the Cultural Revolution and had experience chanting red songs. At that time, chanting red songs always helped unite people and power together."

Simpletons

The piece also mentions why exactly are these tourists unsophisticated.

According to some random university teacher Global Times quoted, he attributed "patriotic education" as being very successful in the past in China, which makes the Chinese immediately think of their motherland when an emergency happens.

This mindset renders Chinese people sensitive about its humiliating history and gives them a "victim mindset" when traveling in other countries.

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Remedies

Interestingly, the article also mentioned that because the Chinese embassy had to step in during these incidents that threatened to escalate into diplomatic rows, the ambassador gets inconvenienced having to deal with such private commercial disputes.

The warning is clear: Don't be a nuisance to the point you get in the way of your own countryman who has better things to do.

The overall advice the piece gives is also somewhat unfortunate, as it is equal measures practical and patronising.

It urged Chinese tourists to avoid buying cheap tickets that do not offer meals and accommodation in times of emergencies, and it actually praised the government for allowing the mainstream media to call out and slam such obnoxious pushy behaviour exhibited by Chinese tourists.

It also urged patience on the part of the rest of the world.

By waiting for the younger generations born in 1980s and 1990s to get older and start travelling, the situation will eventually be much better, the piece said.

You can read the Global Times article here.