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Tuesday, 26 February, 2013, 11:30am
Outrage after Chinese men on Air France flight take wine bottles 'to go'
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One of the men who took eight bottles of wine from an airline service cart, as posted on Sina Weibo. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Two Chinese men on an Air France flight recently shocked their fellow passengers by snatching eight bottles of wine from the airline service cart, ignoring objections from other travellers on board.
Wen Fei, a Chinese woman who works in Paris, wrote on weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, about her encounters with the two men who sat near her on flight AF132 from Paris to China’s central Wuhan city on Friday.
Wen said she tried to stop them after they each took at least eight bottles of wine and stowed them in their bags - without asking the flight crew.
“I explained to them it was not OK and interpreted the flight attendents' explanation in French, but they said it was none of my business, ” Wen told SCMP.com on Tuesday.
The two men, apparently drunk, then shouted at Wen in the Wuhan dialect, she said.
“They asked me to back off if I ever wanted to leave Wuhan in one piece,” said Wen.
The pilot later interfered and asked the men to stop fighting with Wen, she said.
“This kind of behaviour is demeaning for the Chinese travelling abroad,” she said.
Wen also posted a picture she had secretly taken of one of the two men. The photo shows a middle-aged man wearing glasses and well-dressed.
Wen’s post struck a chord with many netizens who said they, too, find the behaviour of some Chinese travellers appalling.
“The Chinese are always loud and jump queues to get on a flight – even when everyone has a seat,” said a netizen.
“They are used to ‘stealing’ from people in China and now they start applying that habit elsewhere,” commented another netizen, implying the two men might be powerful Wuhan officials.
The identities of the two men remain unknown.
Air France didn’t respond to the South China Morning Post’s request for an interview on Tuesday.
In a separate incident in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, a local CPPCC member and businessman, Yan Linkun, was caught on camera throwing a temper tantrum and smashing an airport check-in counter after he missed the deadline for boarding.
Yan has apologised to the airport and was suspended from his work, said reports from Chinese media.
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syracuse37 Feb 27th 2013
8:41am
8:41am
Well Chineses keep remembering the whole world about there 4000 now 5000 and soon 6000 years of history and culture, they were some of the first culture to travel abroad and do commerce if that is not long enough , how long will it take? The 1.3 billion is not relevant in a case like this, Japan has a more dense population than China and people are more respectful of law. I have seen man like this one before in China at airport you see them all the tame. Truth is they often are official in country side and are use to be all mighty and they can't take no for an answer. I think most of Chinese behave well when travelling abroad, I think most of official from large province also behave well. What I do hope is that official like this one get dismissed of their position and that the good efforts of Xi Jiping to clear the party continues and help.
jayb Feb 27th 2013
5:15am
5:15am
traveling helps to "civilize" a people. americans have been traveling aboard since 1950s but until today, in latin america, europe, we still have the "ulgy american" image.
acheong10 Feb 27th 2013
2:21am
2:21am
lauyukeung - Your point is valid in principle. In the real world, however, most people judge based on perception, generalization, and profiling, especially when it comes to people from different ethnicity or background. The challenge is when there are over tens of millions mainland Chinese traveling, working, and studying abroad. Even a fraction of such population misbehave, it becomes a reality to other people's eyes. Once perception and stereotype are formed, it would take an even longer time for the image to break and it would take just one incident to enforce it again. As a person who moved to the US from HK at a young age, I can tell you stereotypes and how they impact people's daily decisions in the States are very prevalent. China has many challenges on its hands, but I hope the leadership will understand the importance and impact of perception and the damage some of its people are doing to the country. A perfect case study is Hong Kong - mainland Chinese relationship. If China does not roll out comprehensive social education to the broader public and enforcement methods to correct behaviors aside from education in schools, which will most likely benefit the very young, China can say good-bye to its 'soft power' ambition. Countries may like your money but they do not need to like your people. The sooner some in mainland China realize that anti-Chinese sentiment is not mainly in HK but in other countries as well, the sooner mannerism is placed as a high priority.
HiggsSinglet Feb 26th 2013
8:15pm
8:15pm
Well sounded like someone in the seat of power and abuses it will do something like this!!! Shame shame shame shame shame!!!
mercedes2233 Feb 26th 2013
8:09pm
8:09pm
The bottles of wine served on planes are mini-bottles, certainly not full-sized.
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