A clash between a foreigner and security guards in Taiyuan has attracted the attention of Chinese netizens this weekend, with the Weibo hashtag “Foreigner Expelled from Park for not Wearing Mask” (#老外未戴口罩进公园被驱逐#) receiving over 120 million views on Sunday.
The incident happened on August 27, when a foreigner allegedly tried to enter a public park without wearing a mask and then clashed with the local guards. When they denied him entry to the park, the man sat down and scolded the guards.
The video shows the man giving the finger to one of the guards, saying: “F*ck you, sir. You are racist.”
The guard repeatedly asks the man to leave, and then also demands that he stops speaking in English: “In China, you speak Chinese.”
While some people in the crowd are filming the incident, others are also getting involved, yelling: “You should wear a mask!”
120 million views on Weibo for this video showing an altercation between an unmasked foreigner and some Taiyuan park guards, who asked him to leave. The laowai refused, said that it was racist and also used the F word, the guards told him that he'd better speak Chinese in China. pic.twitter.com/iwtwMaAASm
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) August 28, 2022
On social media, the incident triggered discussions. While the majority of commenters praised the guards for strictly enforcing rules, there were also those who sided with the foreigner, pointing out that the video showed there were also other people in the park without a mask who apparently did not get in trouble for it.
One popular Weibo blogger named Wuzhishuo (@吴志硕) wrote: “Judging from this video alone, there are a whole lot of people who aren’t wearing masks, and the security guards don’t care, but they particularly care about this foreigner. The foreigner is not wrong for protesting that. Secondly, what is the logic of having to speak Chinese in China? Do we also have to speak Thai when we go to Thailand?”
After this blogger was criticized for taking this stance, they further elaborated on why they wrote this, giving four reasons why the foreigner was not necessarily wrong.
First, Wuzhishuo argued, the guards seemed to purposefully single out the foreigner over not wearing a mask while there were also Chinese not wearing one. Second, it was unreasonable for the guards to demand that the foreigner would speak in Chinese, as it would anger and insult the Chinese people also if they were requested to speak the language of every country they visited. Third, the blogger wrote, there is a general tendency to always blindly side with the Chinese whenever there is a conflict involving a foreigner, regardless of the situation. “That is not patriotism,” Wuzhishuo wrote, “On the contrary, it tarnishes China’s international image.”
Finally, the blogger mentions that the measure of wearing masks when entering the park in itself is also “meaningless” since nobody cares if people take off their masks once they have entered the park. “This kind of control is simply for the sake of control,” Wuzhishuo writes: “These meaningless epidemic prevention measures deserve to be condemned, regardless if it’s by a Chinese person or a foreigner.”
There are more people on Weibo who – partly – agree with this stance, writing: “The mask is an epidemic prevention measure, but asking someone to speak Chinese is unreasonable.”
But many people do not agree, telling the foreigner to leave and go back to his own country: “In China, you follow Chinese rules. Is that racism? Wake up! You thought you were still in the China from a century ago?”
This is not the first time that conflict arises between unmasked foreigners in China and local Chinese. In Xi’an, a foreign woman who did not wear a mask at the station in 2021 also gave local staff the finger (#外籍女子拒戴口罩冲乘客竖中指#).
At the time of writing, the Chinese media outlets that shared the Taiyuan viral video did not provide further details or context about the incident.
By Manya Koetse
Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our weekly newsletter and get access to our latest articles:
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.
©2022 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
The post Foreigner Clashes with Chinese Security Guards for Not Wearing Mask at Park in Taiyuan appeared first on What's on Weibo.