Rude Chinese Tourists? Is It a Story About Another Country? [Beijing Diary]

The two words "Chinese tourists" provide only two simple pieces of information, but many people see a common image in them. Thinking of them as "noisy and ill-mannered group tourists at overseas travel destinations" would not be wrong. But do the travel patterns and manners of Chinese people really still remain stuck there?

There was a laughable incident involving Chinese guests on a recently aired variety show (Seojin's Place 2, tvN). This program has maintained the same narrative for years: "Famous celebrities act as restaurant owners and staff, quickly preparing Korean food for foreigners, mostly white guests, who enjoy and admire it." The presence of famous Korean celebrities and the enthusiastic praise typical of Westerners are prerequisites for the program, and viewers have enjoyed the videos while indulging in so-called "gukppong" (nationalistic pride).

(Photo by tvN Seojin's House 2)

However, surprisingly, Chinese people keep appearing on the program filmed far away in Iceland. These guests, who already know Korean food to some extent and may be familiar with it, do not respond with "fantastic" or "amazing" (like Koreans do), but quietly enjoy the fact that they are sharing the same space with the celebrities while eating. The scene where Asian people buy and sell food among themselves took the place where Korean food and white people's praise should have met. Judging from the conversations among them, most of the guests are international students or tourists from mainland China or Taiwan.

When the program deviated from expectations, there were quite a few viewer complaints. Eventually, the producers edited some parts and changed the situation by inviting local residents to serve food. This effort was likely to return to the program's original intent and the direction viewers wanted, but this process became the reason I decided to write about "Chinese tourists."

Returning to the topic of "Chinese tourists," how were their manners as shown on the program? Did they mess up the restaurant, talk loudly, damage utensils, or behave rudely? The answer can be given by viewers who watched the program directly.

As periodically reported in the news, Chinese people who turn convenience stores into garbage dumps or let children urinate and defecate on the street? Of course, there are such people. But there are also such shameless and ill-mannered people among Koreans. I recall reading articles about people eating and drinking in unmanned laundromats without cleaning up or someone habitually using the wall of another person's house as a toilet?not stories from a foreign country. Of course, one might argue that there are differences in degree based on personal experience, but having lived in China for two years, I have not often seen such extremely rude Chinese people.

When reporting from various places across China and meeting local business people, I am sometimes surprised by their broad and high-level manners and sophistication. At the same time, in some cases, I am shocked by their rudeness and hygiene concepts that are out of touch with modern society. I also covered related topics in my first column written when I started living in China ([Beijing Diary] Life in China is "No Standard").

Out of 1.4 billion Chinese people, how many different types of people will flood overseas? However, flattening and lumping their images into one word, "Chinese tourists," and ignoring them is something that lowers our own dignity.