Tuesday, June 17, 2003

Hong Kong - An expatriate who walked into a restaurant in eastern China wearing a T-shirt listing 10 things Chinese people should not do to foreigners was ordered to issue a public apology, a news report said Monday.
The T-shirt, printed in Chinese, included tips not to stare at foreigners, not to shout "hello" to every foreigner, and not to try to convince them to stay in bad hotels, according to the South China Morning Post.
The expatriate, whose nationality was not given, called police because he felt "threatened" by the hostile reaction his T-shirt generated in the restaurant in Nanjing.
Police later made him issue a public apology for insulting Chinese people to calm the situation, the newspaper said. - Sapa-DPA

Having never seen that shirt, I think I can guess pretty much what those 10 things were:
1. Stop staring.
2. Don't shout "Hello!" to every foreigner you see.
3. Don't try to convince me to stay in a bad hotel (these three are from the report, though I've never experienced #3)
4. Don't ask, "What do you think of this country?" if you're not prepared to hear the bad bits, too.
5. Don't ask, "How much money do you make?"
6. Don't ask, "Are you married?"
7. Don't start a conversation with "I must practice my English."
8. Don't encourage your children to talk to me on the street.
9. Don't pick your nose in front of me.
10. Maybe you could just leave me alone.

To be fair, the foreigner deserved a little bit of trouble for actually wearing the shirt in public. I imagine foreigners living in America could make an equally irritating list that might start with, "I'm not deaf or stupid. Please don't talk to me like I'm a retard."

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