Article Source: Jeraldinephneah.com
Many people around the world have a bad impression of Chinese tourists due to the way they behave when visiting foreign countries. In the past few years, these tourists have really earned a really bad reputation worldwide. You can read these articles from South China Morning Post, The Economist and the Huffington Post.
Even those of Chinese descent in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are unable to tolerate such behaviors. For instance, in Hong Kong, there were instances where Chinese mothers allowed their children to urinate in public which made several HK residents extremely unhappy. When confronted by HK people, the mum slapped one on the face and rammed another with the pram. (You can read about the whole incident here).
In fact, in response to a poll by the SCMP.com headlined “What makes some Hongkongers dislike mainland China and its people?”, more than 50 per cent readers blamed the negative feelings on “ill-behaved tourists” believing that they have money but not the manners.
It is the same in Taiwan whereby recently a PRC mother let her children defecate on the floor of Kaohsiung airport in Taiwan, just meters (feet) from a toilet. She did put newspaper down first though.
The Chinese government has recognized this problem themselves. In a bold move to crack down on rude China tourists, the officials have begun adding the names of the above offenders to a new blacklist which may affect their freedom to travel. The Communist Party’s Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilisation and the China National Tourism Administration have also recently issued a 128-character-long rhyme to remind tourists of behaving in a “civilized manner” on the road.
Many Chinese nationals also frown upon the bad behavior of their fellow country men. The topic has been a big hit on China’s social media, where bloggers discuss and criticize the uncivilized behavior of other Chinese tourists.
It is not the case that every single Chinese tourists and immigrants are badly behaved. It is just that quite a number of Chinese tourists have given their country a bad name through uncivillized behavior abroad, much to the dismay of the rest of the civilized population in China.
For some time, I have been thinking why there was such a big difference in the behavior and reputation of Chinese tourists from China and the Chinese from places with a significant Chinese population such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Given that we are all of similar ethnic origin, it probably has little to do with genetics or Chinese culture but rather the environment in China itself.
After thinking about this topic, I decided to write this post to share with the readers about why Chinese people behave this way and enable them to be more tolerant, understanding and empathetic towards them.
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