Insulting another country is never right, however, that does not mean it does not happen. A good example of this is the recent Jocelyn Chia controversy, which made Malaysians’ blood boil. Trash-talking a different country is very disrespectful; this should not be a practice, even if it is just “fun and jokes”.
Recently, a similar incident happened in China. A video went viral on Weibo where Chinese actor Ocean Chen (陈鑫海) was seen striking back at a tourist insulting his home country. This soon became a hot topic of discussion among netizens, with many praising the actor for his patriotism.
On 10th June 2023, fans crowded at the airport to greet Ocean after he had touched down in Beijing. At that time, a fan of his accidentally bumped against a foreign tourist, leading the tourist to curse out loud, “F*ck you, China!” Upon hearing this, the actor was pissed and immediately struck back at the tourist. “Which country are you from?! Why did you insult China?!” he yelled.
The tourist fought back by asking who the public figure was, to which he replied: “I’m no one, but you are not allowed to insult China!” The argument got really heated in the video, and there was even a moment when the actor stopped in his tracks to glare at the rude tourist.
Although the cause of this incident was because of a fan of the celeb bumping into the tourist, the foreigner’s anger directed at China instead of the fan was certainly uncalled for. “He could’ve scolded the fan for their behaviour, why did he have to bring it to a national level?” a netizen questioned.
Many netizens backed Ocean for his anger and actions claiming that when someone insulted your country, you would want to refute them. One netizen wrote, “Fans picking up their idols (at the airport) should not affect social order, but the reputation of our motherland is sacred and should not be violated. It is the responsibility of every Chinese to protect the reputation of their country. Ocean Chen did the right thing, setting a good example for his fans.”
Sources: Oriental Daily, Weibo (1)(2)
This article is contributed by Amelia Er.
