‘This isn’t your toilet’: NBA star’s graffiti on China’s Great Wall draws fire on social media
Basketballer Bobby Brown, who posted image of his tag on cultural site, sorry after being slammed by Chinese internet users
NBA player Bobby Brown is under fire in China after he posted a photo of his initials and uniform number name graffitied on the stones of the country’s ancient Great Wall, Chinese media reports.
“Had a blast at the Great Wall of China today,” the 32-year-old point guard for the Houston Rockets wrote on his Weibo microblog on Monday afternoon, adding four photos, including one with his initials and uniform number, “BB #6”, on bricks at the wall, news portal sina.com reports.
His post soon provoked outrage on China’s social media, as many Internet users criticised Brown for defacing China’s most famous cultural heritage.
“Are you proud of your carving? This is a part of world heritage, not the toilet of your home,” one Weibo user commented before Brown’s post was removed.
Brown, who was in Beijing for the 2016 NBA Global Game China between the Houston Rockets and New Orleans Pelicans, later apologised on his microblog, and asked for forgiveness from fans and Chinese Internet users.
“I respect the Chinese culture, I made an honest mistake … hope you forgive me,” he wrote in a post the next morning, which was later also removed.
The rudeness of Chinese tourists has come under the spotlight in recent years in the wake of a series of incidents involving them.
In one such case, a teenager from Nanjing carved his name on the wall of a 3,500-year-old Egyptian temple in 2013, which later triggered nationwide introspection on poor behaviour by Chinese tourists abroad, which many said damaged the image of mainland tourists.
