MCLC: why are Chinese tourists so rude

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: why are Chinese tourists rude
***********************************************************

Source: SCMP (8/3/13):
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1251239/why-are-chinese-tourists-so-
rude

Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights
After almost every 'rude Chinese tourist' story, unfortunately, made
SCMP.com's top-10 list, I decided to give the question some serious thought
By Amy Li

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 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and its culture is often at best outdated or non-existent.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.
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.”

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
<http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1253621/big-leap-bad-feelings-t
owards-hong-kong-government-mainlanders> 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?”
<http://www.scmp.com/comment/polls/poll/1253811/what-makes-hongkongers-disl
ike-mainland-china-and-its-people>
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
<http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1248113/communist-party-wades-de
bate-chinese-tourism-behaviour> 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.