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Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

Thick Face Black Heart

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
[h=2]Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights[/h] Saturday, 01 June, 2013, 11:02am


News›China






Amy Li




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 [1]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 Their knowledge of the destination country and its culture is often at best outdated or non-existent.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. [2] 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.”


sign.jpg


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 [3] 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?” [4]


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 [5] 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.
 

quelone

Alfrescian
Loyal
The very last line says it all. The issue is that their money grew very quickly but not their education and ethics. Some of these people may have even derived their money criminally eg acceptance of bribes or selling tainted food. With this type of mentality just do not expect them to behave when they are overseas or even at home.
 

halsey02

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
They just need to put up that sign & solve all the problems..."NO DOGS & CHINESE ALLOWED"... ha ha ha
 

Leongsam

High Order Twit / Low SES subject
Admin
Asset
There is nothing to explain. It's a simple fact that Chinese behave worse than animals when it comes to social graces. It's part of their genetic makeup.
 

uvwxyz

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
One salesperson working in a branded high end handbag boutique shared that the only reason they tolerate the rude, unruly and noisy Chinese customers is because they just buy the stuff without much thought and hardly bargain. Many of them buy a few bags at one go. To them there is good money to be made so they just bite their tongues when these people start to act up.
 

yellowarse

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Asset
3 reasons:

1. Sudden switch from communism to capitalism against a backdrop of religious suppression ➔ ideological vacuum juxtaposed with sudden wealth

2. Rampant corruption and abuse of power by state officials ➔ jungle mentality (survival of the fittest) among the plebeians

3. Massive illiteracy during CCP takeover ➔ low education levels among older and rural folk today, in spite of rapidly rising literacy rates among the young

Self-interest reigns, and money is a proxy for power, status, and one's guarantee of survival in a dog-eat-dog society.
 
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tonychat

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Beside staying away from sinkies, you have to stay away from China Chink.

Last year, i booked a middle class apartment in bangkok for a period of time and i notice a sign saying there should be no spitting on the ground.

At first, i was puzzled that there is such a signage in a Thai apartment ground in Bangkok..After some pondering, ahhhh...the bloody china chinks..
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
I do not think there is any link to communism and their behaviour. I heard this comment so many times and in the early days used to think the same. Much of Eastern Europe and even Cuba were in similar position yet they don't behave like this.

I think they have become highly competitive in their own environment plus your point about corruption and jungle mentality and survival of the fittest approach has become the order of the day.



3 reasons:

1. Sudden switch from communism to capitalism against a backdrop of religious suppression ➔ ideological vacuum juxtaposed with sudden wealth

2. Rampant corruption and abuse of power by state officials ➔ jungle mentality (survival of the fittest) among the plebeians

3. Massive illiteracy during CCP takeover ➔ low education levels among older and rural folk today, in spite of rapidly rising literacy rates among the young

Self-interest reigns, and money is a proxy for power, status, and one's guarantee of survival in a dog-eat-dog society.
 

Cerebral

Alfrescian (InfP) [Comp]
Generous Asset
I do not think there is any link to communism and their behaviour. I heard this comment so many times and in the early days used to think the same. Much of Eastern Europe and even Cuba were in similar position yet they don't behave like this.

I think they have become highly competitive in their own environment plus your point about corruption and jungle mentality and survival of the fittest approach has become the order of the day.

I think you may be wrong on this account. The Chinese gentlemen was based on thousands of years of confucius and other great sage's teachings. When the Chinese communist come into power in post-war 1949. In its place and especially from '66 when the cultural revolution took place, a lot of the older value systems were suppressed and communistic ideology took centrestage. I believe this is the vacuum, considering the void it created in 1 whole generation, which are now in their 50s and 60s.
 

sleaguepunter

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Mao's Culture Revolution is the main culprit for the current unruly behaviour of the Chinese. The breakdown in social norms in those turbulent 10 years did extreme harm to the upbringings in that generation of Chinese. Now that generation of Chinese are themselves parents or grandparents, their offsprings will be in the same mold. Of course, Deng's reforms also cause further problems as the prosperity brought by Deng's reforms also make the masses only understand $$ is everything.

Due to the influx of mainland tourists into HK, hongkies now treat anyone who cannot speak Cantonese as mainlanders and let just say many hongkies are downright rude to non Cantonese speaking Chinese because of that.
 

yellowarse

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Asset
I think you may be wrong on this account. The Chinese gentlemen was based on thousands of years of confucius and other great sage's teachings. When the Chinese communist come into power in post-war 1949. In its place and especially from '66 when the cultural revolution took place, a lot of the older value systems were suppressed and communistic ideology took centrestage. I believe this is the vacuum, considering the void it created in 1 whole generation, which are now in their 50s and 60s.

Agree. If you speak to the Chinese today, they refer to those from 50 to 70 as the lost generation: they were indoctrinated with Communist tenets, but these took the place of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and the values and morality informed by 5,000 years of civilization. While central planning and a collectivised economy with minimal social inequity held sway, they found security in their ideology and led a comfortable if spartan and fairly cultured existence. Strong sense of community, almost zero crime rate (doors were never locked), low aggression and competitiveness in the workplace, iron rice bowl.

Once the communist rug was pulled from under their feet in the transition to a free-market economy, the lack of a spiritual/moral ballast wreaked havoc. They became lost. Where once the communal principle and proletariat equality reigned supreme, now capital and oneupmanship is the order of the day. When you don't have spiritual/cultural norms that stress the interconnectedness of humanity and the value of service and sacrifice to community, the free market tends to engender an every-man-for-himself paradigm. So it's back to the jungle. Or as Tennyson says: Nature, red in tooth and claw​.
 

Leongsam

High Order Twit / Low SES subject
Admin
Asset
the free market tends to engender an every-man-for-himself paradigm. So it's back to the jungle. Or as Tennyson says: Nature, red in tooth and claw​.

That's the way LKY likes them... provided they acknowledge that he is the top dog.
 

yellowarse

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
I do not think there is any link to communism and their behaviour. I heard this comment so many times and in the early days used to think the same. Much of Eastern Europe and even Cuba were in similar position yet they don't behave like this.

Not communism per se, but the transition from communism to capitalism without the moral/cultural ballast that old civilizations tend to have, because of years of suppression of traditional Chinese (read Confucianist/Taoist/Buddhist) values.

Eastern Europe has yet to make the spectacular transition that the Chinese have to capitalism, not even Russia, which remains a semi-fascist oligarchy. Cuba is still staunchly communist.
 

greedy and cunning

Alfrescian
Loyal
I do not think there is any link to communism and their behaviour. I heard this comment so many times and in the early days used to think the same. Much of Eastern Europe and even Cuba were in similar position yet they don't behave like this.

I think they have become highly competitive in their own environment plus your point about corruption and jungle mentality and survival of the fittest approach has become the order of the day.

communist , democracy , or whatever you have is not exactly the same in all countries.
did the cuban suffered the Cultural Revolution that the ordinary chinese people gone through ?
 

extramarital

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
There is nothing to explain. It's a simple fact that Chinese behave worse than animals when it comes to social graces. It's part of their genetic makeup.

That's why you need to put a sign on the front page of this forum that says "No Chinese and Faeces Allowed."
 
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