Chinese Tourists Who Have Been Shunned

 Hey everyone, where did you guys go for the May Day holiday? Was it Summoner’s Rift or Twisted Treeline? Hahahaha. Hey, you guys didn’t actually go out anywhere, did you? I checked my Moments feed, and even my classmate Xiao Hei—the “Perpetual Bachelor”—went out with his girlfriend. And abroad, no less?

      Before boarding the plane, Xiao Hei posted this on his Moments: “Heading abroad—I won’t embarrass the Chinese people.” He accompanied the post with a handsome photo of himself.

“Don’t bring shame on the Chinese people”—this is a phrase our editors often hear from people who are about to travel abroad. In previous years, we’ve frequently seen news reports of incidents involving our compatriots behaving in an uncivilized manner abroad, which has brought great “shame” upon our motherland.

For example, a brawl broke out outside an Apple Store in New York as people scrambled to buy iPhones.

Middle-Aged Women Enjoying the Cherry Blossoms in Japan

 Fortunately, I once had the chance to travel to Europe with my wealthy cousin. As a Chinese expatriate whose motto is “Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?”, setting foot on European soil, the trip wasn’t exactly a pleasant one.

In stark contrast to the hospitality found in China, Europeans don’t seem particularly friendly.

I remember that trip when my cousin, several other Chinese tourists, and I walked into a boutique selling all kinds of trinkets at exorbitant prices. Just a moment earlier, they had been all smiles, welcoming the blond-haired, fair-skinned foreigners, but the moment our large group stepped into the store, the European staff immediately looked on edge, as if they were constantly on guard against us breaking or stealing something.

It made a deep impression on me at the time: a European sales clerk seemed to have said something to a fellow Chinese tourist, and that middle-aged man in his forties got very upset and immediately stormed off, muttering under his breath, “You think I can’t afford it? You look down on me…” and other remarks like that.

Look down on people? Although I haven’t heard many tourists say this outright, to be honest, I’ve even had that mindset myself. Thanks to my location, I often visit Hong Kong, where I’ve experienced being treated differently by foreigners and mainland Chinese. One moment they’re serving foreign tourists with overflowing enthusiasm, but the next, when it’s our turn, their faces practically scream their true thoughts: “Just get this transaction over with and be done with it.”

This contrast in treatment has left a large number of mainland tourists deeply outraged. They say things like, “We’re the ones coming here to spend money on you, yet you act like you don’t want us here. If it weren’t for us coming to visit, you’d be eating dirt.”

So what exactly is the reason behind the mindset that makes foreigners unhappy even when we give them money?

While researching, I discovered that according to European opinion polls from the 1990s—and even into the early 21st century—Europeans held a very friendly attitude toward the Chinese. I had the good fortune to chat with an author who had studied abroad early on. He told me that in the 1990s, if you walked down the streets of France, local residents would even warmly welcome you and strike up conversations about Confucius and Eastern culture. At the end of the last century, Chinese students were renowned for their diligence and academic excellence; though they lived in poverty, they were universally respected by those around them.

 We used to think that once we became rich and rose to prominence, others would naturally respect us. In fact, this is a very “Chinese” way of thinking. In China, when faced with a wealthy individual who behaves in an unrefined manner or speaks crudely, we tend to view this boss as “down-to-earth” or “truly bold.” Drawing on the vast and profound nature of Chinese culture, the general attitude is that as long as you have money and power, you’re the boss. No matter how much their behavior deviates from mainstream values, people will still fawn over them as “extraordinary.”

      But when a group of Chinese tourists, armed with “money” and “power,” arrive abroad, they often find it hard to adjust. Local residents aren’t going to kowtow to you just because you’re a high-ranking official or a board member. With this mindset, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “You think I can’t afford this? You’re looking down on me?” Whether this stems from an inferiority complex or a desire to emphasize that “money is no object” remains unclear.

Another factor, in my view, is the “media effect.” A few years ago, an incident involving a young child from the mainland urinating in public in Hong Kong caused a huge stir. To be fair, with more than 500,000 people visiting Hong Kong every day, there are really only two or three such incidents of public urination or defecation. But when the media blows it out of proportion, it instantly creates the false impression that “people from the mainland are all like that.”

The behavior of Chinese tourists is gradually improving!

In recent years, we’ve seen many heartening news stories about self-criticism, which have reinforced the sense of responsibility among every traveler—like my friend Xiao Hei—to behave appropriately while abroad and not bring shame upon the Chinese people! This is a positive trend! Nowadays, scandals involving Chinese people abroad are becoming fewer and fewer each year.

For example, a touching scene:

China's Hottest Middle-Aged Man Saves Lives and Treats the Wounded

Stylish Chinese Moms

It’s not just our elders—young people are determined not to be left behind either.

For example

Chinese fans watching games abroad spontaneously pick up trash

The Japanese government presented a letter of appreciation to a young Chinese man:

One more to finish: It moved a billion Chinese people