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Two Chinese men allegedly stormed out of a Chinese restaurant in California, United States one evening earlier in October 2021, despite barely eating their US$100 (S$134.60) worth of food.

The reason for their anger? Apparently, the sound of Chinese-Americans singing the U.S. national anthem.

Waitress: the men had northern Chinese accents

According to World Journal, the largest Chinese language newspaper in the U.S., the incident occurred on the evening of Oct. 13.

At around 7pm, the Chinese restaurant was full of guests when the two men purportedly arrived.

Security camera footage shows two men dressed in dark clothes and wearing black masks entering the restaurant and being seated.

According to the waitress, the men spoke with northern Chinese accents.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the restaurant were four or five tables filled with various community representatives and elected officials from a number of Southern California cities.

They were there for a fundraising dinner for Mike Fong, a candidate running for California's State Assembly.

Lost their appetites after hearing national anthem being sung

At around 7:20pm, before the dinner event started, the group stood up to sing the U.S. national anthem as per their usual practice, World Journal reported.

However, the singing of the anthem apparently angered the two Chinese men who were eating their dinner elsewhere in the restaurant.

They had reportedly ordered four or five dishes, totalling around US$100 (S$134.60) and had just begun to eat when the singing began.

However, when they heard the singing, they supposedly lost their appetites and angrily left their table.

At the counter, one of the men took out his wallet to pay, but the other allegedly said, "Chinese people singing the U.S. national anthem is too infuriating. We will not pay."

In the security camera footage, one of the men could be seen gesturing toward the back of the restaurant, where the fundraiser dinner was being held.

The two men then left the restaurant.

Restaurant owners: the group were all naturalised U.S. citizens

World Journal reported that the restaurant owner said that in addition to the money lost due to the unpaid bill, he also found the men's behaviour incomprehensible: if their plan had been to dine and dash, it doesn't make sense that they barely ate any of their food.

Thus, he surmised that the men really must have been unhappy with the singing.

However, he noted that all of the Chinese individuals were naturalised U.S. citizens.

He asked what can they sing if they can't sing the U.S. national anthem.

The owner also questioned why the two men would come to the U.S. to "endure hardships and look for anger" if they dislike the country so much.

You can watch security camera footage of the incident here:

Top photos via YouTube / U視頻.

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