MH reader Zhang Fei posted a comment containing a story of an American injured by an angry mob outside a Carrefour in Hunan Province. The story appears to have been posted originally at the Shanghaiist:
Last night [Editor’s note: Sunday, Apr 20] around 7pm my friend was attacked by a mob of about 150 people outside the Carrefour in Zhuzhou, Hunan (near his placement site). When leaving Carrefour some of the crowd started shouting at him and he tried to say he didn’t have anything to do with the Olympics, but 3 men started to push him and then he was hit in the back of the head at least 3 times. He started to run, and the mob chased him. He jumped into a cab, but the mob surrounded the car and started shaking and rocking it. The cab driver was shouting at him to get out. Then they started hitting the car. The crowd was shouting “kill him! kill the Frenchman.” He called the Field Director while in the back of the car. The cab driver abandoned the car when he saw police coming. Two police made there way though the mob and managed to drive the cab away. The Field Director alerted [a certain public official]. The police got him another cab and he took it from Zhuzhou to the field director’s home in Changsha. He spending the night here in Changsha and is likely leaving China as soon as possible.
A letter from the Field Director and updates relating to the incident can be found at the Shanghaiist.
UPDATE: Reader Jing provided a link to a short write-up about the incident at the Boston Globe.
65 Comments
This reminds me of the American soldier who was stabbed in Haebangchon back in 2002. That was worse.
Even if this can’t be verified, obviously non-Chinese (why was the warning only for “Caucasian readers”?) should avoid Carrefour in China for a while.
Sounds like they are learning some lessons from Koreans!
Nah, maybe we human beings just have a violent streak from useless racial stereotyping…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Chin
I’m sorry if I derailed the thread. Although the results of the Korean attack (stabbing) were worse, it was only a couple attackers, not a mob of 150 people (if this is true). This reminds me more of the attacks on the US embassy in 1999.
Sounds like what happened after the US bombing of the Yugoslav Embassy way back.
The Chinese attacked McDonalds and other Western store outlets. Some Chinese students having American teachers were intimated and roughed up a bit.
(must… resist….can’t…ugh)
Man, those Chinese sure are a surly lot.
OK, I am kind of kidding there but what is up with the Chinese getting all thuggy whenever they get upset about something. I can under a few crazy and/or drunk guys getting out of hand and doing something stupid, but 150? How could a mob of 150 even get together without the police noticing?
Opps, that is why I should never comment before my first cup of coffee.
“?”
“understand”
“Sounds like they are learning some lessons from Koreans!”
Man, sounds like someone has some unresolved personal problems…
That’s a pretty crazy story… is it just in central China? Have couple of ‘whitie’ friends on internships in major cities over there…
A commenter at Businessweek:
There was a major riot at the Carrefour in Hefei, Anhui yesterday. I live in China and have been threatened with violence if I go to Carrefour.
WK: Nah, maybe we human beings just have a violent streak from useless racial stereotyping…
This is a minor incident as far as Chinese mobs go. During the Boxer Rebellion, they hacked to pieces tens of thousands of Chinese Christians, together with dozens of Western missionaries.
And then there was that other, more recent, mob scene - the Cultural Revolution, where mobs of Chinese got together to humiliate and torture to death their political adversaries - at the suggestion of the late Chairman Mao. Chinese propaganda aside, there’s a reason that the Chinese empire remains intact, and way larger than it was at inception 2000 years ago - and it’s not China’s innate pacifism.
Boxer Rebellion started this way, I heard.
The Chinese are angry. They hate to be the poorest among the three countries, China, Japan and Korea. This pent-up anger will explaude right after the Olympics.
The Chinese will order NKs to attack Japan. WWIII will start this year.
China is as big as Europe, but it’s one country and not 24. Just 100 years ago China probably had as many languages as Europe. They certainly have, even to this day, as many ethnicities.
The Chinese came from the central plains of the mainland and branched out over centuries of warfare nations they shared a contiguous border with. Their experiments have been ones of setting up commandaries in conquered lands, bringing in their culture, trade, commerce and language. The commandary over time became districts, then official provinces. Something like what England did in Wales but in a much larger scale.
Korea (and Vietnam) avoided this aborption policy by destroying the commandaries before they completed their task of assimilation.
Man, those guys are vicious. This doesn’t remind me of anything that has ever happened in Korea. When have Korean mobs of people attacked and tried to kill single foreigners? Never. Trying to relate this to Korea is a bit of a stretch.
You should relate this to some event in the Middle East. That’s the world’s angry mob central clearing house.
Andy, you’ve never been to China apparently… 150 is not a mob in China. It’s less than the taxi queue at Canton’s east train station at any given time. Probably less than the number of people waiting in any line at Carrefour to check out. If you think Myeong Dong is crowded, think again
#13, I had plenty of friends attacked, spat on and abused in Cheongju around the time of the ‘Tank Girls’ protests.
Anyhow, from the POV of someone who is becoming increasingly hostile to the Beijing Olympics, these attacks will only serve to further damage the reputation and tarnish the image of the games. While I wish no harm to any expat in China, I do hope they serve to warn people away from the showpiece of the increasingly irrational CCP.
Wow! I no longer have CNN on cable. Cm was right! Talk about tip-toeing.
I get the feeling that this years olympics is going to conjure up the kind of love and comraderie we haven’t seen in the games since around 1936.
I don’t think there were any tears shed when Koreans were attacked by Chinese mobs or were there any sympathetic notes when Chinese internet nazis falsely accused Koreans of stealing this and stealing that which were of Chinese cultural properties. The height of anti-Korean rage on the internet in China not too long ago, and still going on … weren’t and aren’t there a sense of smug satisfaction that those worst racists in the world, the Koreans are getting what they deserved? Wasn’t it Koreans’ fault that they aren’t well liked in China? Wasn’t their laughter expat blogs after a poll in China which said Koreans were the most hated nationality? How often did someone commented “let the Chinese have this shit hole called Korea”? Now it’s the turn of the Westerners to be bashed in China. And all of a sudden it’s not funny anymore. All of a sudden those same lovable Chinese are EVIL..
Do you think angry mobs of Chinese are going to attack and kill foreign athletes that win against Chinese competitors? Oh man that would be so historically significant.
I think it’s hilarious, cm. I would probably have a different perspective if I was trying to hail a cab in front of a Carrefour.
Now if somebody would tell me what the hell a Carrefour is so I can steer clear of it I’d be obliged.
How often did someone commented “let the Chinese have this shit hole called Korea”? Umm, maybe once, probably mcnut.
All of a sudden those same lovable Chinese are EVIL.. Please show us an example of commenters here describing Chinese as lovable.
You don’t see the humor in this. The Chinese government has been busily attempting to keep its citizens from smoking in restaurants, spitting on the sidewalks and telling them to wait their turns in line. They forgot to tell them not to pummel innocent foreigners. Entertainment-wise, this might become a ten.
“Now if somebody would tell me what the hell a Carrefour is so I can steer clear of it I’d be obliged.”
A large retailer based in Europe. They shut down in Korea to focus on business in China.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20...../carre.php
Well, to be fair, I’ve more or less said that in reference to North Korea a few times. I suppose to some people (who couldn’t find either on a map) could see that as the same thing.
I think that, as the Olympics actually approach, the Chinese government is going to start putting the thumbscrews to anyone who behaves badly towards foreigners. Don’t want to mess up the hosting, after all.
It wouldn’t surprise me if undercover Chinese secret police were involved in stirring the crowd up. A Korean American view of what might have happened:
This is how communist inciting works in China. First, Communists encourage and abet mass protest and mob activities. Soon they heat up and getting violent. When it starts to boil over, the communists step in again and quell the mob. In the process, they pretend that mob violence is just spontaneous event by ordinary Chinese, and they pretend that they had always been on the side of reason and caution. However, their rhetoric leading up to the mob violence is usually anything but.
Communists stoked the flame and incite mob violence, sending “message” to intended target audience, in this case, pro-Tibet Westerners. Once its purpose is served, they step in and put an end to it.
The same thing happened with anti-Japanese protest a couple of years ago. As with Cultural Revolution. Red Guards were put down by PLA once they outlived their usefulness(by that time, Red Guards were out of control and even in factional fights among themselves.)
aw come one cm, everyone gets their fair share of hatin’ on the web in the end
I’d say more but everything pretty much I wanted to say has been said ^^
“Don’t want to mess up the hosting, after all.” -0-
The Boxer Rebellion and ransacking McDonalds are the best examples of Chinese anti-foreign violence you can come up with? How about in 879, when Huang Chao captured Guangzhou and massacred up to 200,000 foreign merchants living there?
I think Zhang Fei is right about Chinese authorities stirring up nationalist mobs as a way of strengthening China’s bargaining position vis-a-vis Tibet or the West. The problem is that one of these times, they may lose control of the mob. My understanding is that rapid economic transformation in China has produced a large class of migrants to the urban areas who subsist on very little. These people are cut off from their old identity and social support network in the rural village, and can gravitate toward extremist nationalist groups for jobs, and a sense of identity. Landless farmers were supporters of the Nazis in Germany, for instance. So, the Chinese authorities should think twice before playing with nationalist fire.
@26 - The Boxer Rebellion is a pretty good example, I personally think.
the more i think about it, the more i’m inclined to agree with the chinese. this is an attempt by the west to humiliate china during her coming out party. the chinese wonder (and i agree) how a people who have brought about the death of over a HUNDRED THOUSAND others can say anything about chinese behavior in tibet.
and what is that behavior? are the chinese killing tibetans on a large scale? are there tibetan concentration camps? is there a final solution for the people who drink yak butter tea? the answer to these questions is ‘no’. the chinese aren’t doing anything of the sort. they’re simply moving into a teepee.
so, what this really boils down to, is western objection to the sinification of tibet. the olympics provide the perfect opportunity to voice their objection by turning the chinese into evil reincarnate before th eyes of the wolrd. in other words, the west wants to humiliate the chinese while saying nothing about the carnarge they’ve wrought onto a people who did absolutely nothing to them.
can you imagine? you can’t even compare the two. one is far worse than the other. the tibetans losing their culture is a shame of history but they should thankful they have their lives and can look forward to seeing their kids thrive in a sinic world order.
the hundred thousand we’ve killed so far don’t have that luxury.
the koreans need to be firm here and not cave into the anglo lynch mob. you welcome the torch. you keep protesters away. you allow china to get it’s film and pictures of koreans greeting the torc thereby improving korea’s image in chung nara. sk needs to be very careful in the fights it chooses to pick with the chinese. tibet shouldn’t be one of them.
careful the western noose, korea.
But Pawi, it’s not just the Americans who are critical of the Chinese.
btw, fear? the french are scrambling to repair relations with the chinese. and why?
listen, you better be careful when you fuck with one billion people. ok?
Hey, una faccia, una razza.
Again the race-baiting pawi comes out to play. Again he sings the simple refrain “All foreigners are American, All Americans are GIs, All GIs are bad” (except replace GI with Colonizer). Either you are a Korean-American bitter at being raised in Koreatown, USA and never having known the love of a pure Korean virgin woman… or, uh, you’re just a loser.
OK Pawi, just wait until China starts to encroach on N Korea - now beginning to happen economically, but with China growing stronger and N Korea growing weaker - this trend can only intensify. Who you gonna call then?
meh. I no longer check comment boards once Pawi’s posted on them.
You know when you go out drinking, and everything’s fine and fun and happy, and then somebody says, “Hey! Let’s all do tequila shots”? After the “let’s do shots” guy takes over, the wheels come off, and the next morning, everybody’s moaning, “I should have gone home at eleven.”
At the Marmot’s hole, Pawi is the “let’s do shots” guy.
I can appreciate this comment by “callipers” at the shanghaiist:
Read the few posts after “callipers” for a practical demonstration what passes for thought with some Chinese netizens.
Kommersant has the government shielding its arse:
http://www.kommersant.com/p885.....ccupation/
36 RJK: that was an awesome exchange! thanks for the link. One tequila shot for the road!
@#35:
Don’t let you-know-who spoil a thread. I just scroll down past. Some of us no longer respond to his posts. I wish everybody would do the same.
Anyone have the story of disabled athlete Jin Jing who was a heroine couple of days ago, who is now a traitor for urging Chinese not to boycott Careffour?
The CCP tacitily approved of the anti-Japanese demonstrations (riots) in 2005 and only stepped in when it was starting to go too far, making China look bad. After which the demonstrations died down overnight.
The CCP have been pulling the strings and going out of their way to get the Han Chinese into the us vs. them bunker mentality ever since the Tibetan protests and the West’s subsequent response. Han Chinese not only in the motherland but all across the world have been called upon to come to the aid of wounded Chinese pride.
And look at the result.
That’s the problem when you go out of your way to stir well over a billion people into nationalist frenzy over real and/or perceived insults, some people are going to go too far.
Good luck trying to rein the mobs in now, China. You’ve spent the last two months stirring them up. As a result, the vast majority of western tourists are going to keep themselves and their money out of the Games. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch!
Which gave me an idea: I wrote a GreaseMonkey script that hides all comments by youknowwho. Works like a charm…
This script is available to anyone who wants to keep some sanity.
Actually, I have a lot of sympathy for the Chinese. Speaking from experience, it’s an ugly thing to be told that the government you grew up believing in are doing god-awful things to innocent people.
It’s even uglier to face up to the fact that it’s true.
Sadly, the world is full of people enraged by the first thing, but who never make it to the second.
Pawi’s right only about once a year at best but he is right here:
George W. Bush’s plan to spearhead a boycott of the Olympics and strident support for the Iraq invasion by France and Nancy Pelosi and the latte liberals of San Francisco completely undermine their ability to take any stand on abuses of Tibetans and these highlight their nefarious plot to embarrass China after the West forced Beijing to host the Olympics.
Oops, wait. Those core premises are all completely off base.
I take #44 back. Pawi blew it again!
Sonagi: thanks for the encouraging words, and a chuckle: referring to the small “P” as “You-know-who” made me think of Voldemort in Harry Potter. From now on, that will be my nickname for him/her.
DDA: That’s amazing! We could form a new branch of the No Homers club.
pawi, not all 외국인 are 미국인 so quit banging on about iraq. And if you think Chinese cultural imperialism in Tibet today is ok, do you also believe Japanese cultural imperialism in Korea 60 years ago was ok?
PS I love you.
dda,
that’s one of the most elegant scripts i’ve ever laid eyes on. cheers!
Why is Princess Masako Pawi’s avatar now?
Guys, I am happy you like it. And you can replace pawikirogi with some other nick and save it under another name, and install it too… But pweeze, not dda
Maybe I should make a new version that accepts a custom list of nicks… Of course, this script will break as soon as Robert “upgrades” his wordpress setup. But I’ll update too!
Click here for a brief but more detailed account of what occured.
http://www.boston.com/news/loc.....ntroversy/
I suspect psy-ops at work in this, particularly the second highlighted paragraph at shanghaiist from the “field director”. The first clue I recognized was when he mentioned the three “T”s, this is a intellectual shibboleth coined by the rabid English speaking anti-Chinese separatist forces.
wow, i’m a bit flattered to see someone take the time to create a program to delete my posts from this fine board. you can’t just skip over them, you gotta write a program! lol.
i’m encouraging every single person who can read this to download the progaram and make your world safe again.
‘Some of us no longer respond to his posts. I wish everybody would do the same.’ sonagi
thank god for that one! goodbye, sonagi.
and goodbye to all of you.
lol.
ps once again the expat can’t argue a point. all he does is attack. tsk, tsk, tsk. thanks, slim, for the support.
lmao stfu china man. “Psy ops”.
In the free world, propaganda does not work well.
btw, race baiting? show me where in my post i race bait. SHOW ME! your definition of race bait is anyone who disagrees with you.
try argue a point rather than create a program expat.
lastly, i’ve downloaded dda’s program and the following will suffer their fates:
sonagi
gerry bevers
let’s not add to that list, shall we/
All that program will accomplish is produce a rash epidemic of sock puppets.
‘All that program will accomplish is produce a rash epidemic of sock puppets.’
that’s right.
ps wanggon, you can see the little circle things on the sides, can’t you?
The free world is built upon cartelization of knowledge, information/misinformation dissemination, and the manipulation of human behavior in response to proper stimulii. Propaganda only works all the better because it has become decentralized and ever more subtle. The control over language and other subtle context sensitive cues is a key component of this.
I can sell you two apples that fell from the same tree, one for 25 cents and the other for 25 dollars. You would no doubt rationalize to yourself that the 25 dollar apple was superior to the other despite no rational evidence.
@#44,45:
Won’t you join us in an old-fashioned shunning?
yes, please do shun me. see if it works.
To cm:
Here are some quotes of what people said. Scroll down to [30] The Chinese Traitor Jin Jing!:
http://zonaeuropa.com/200804b.brief.htm
Regarding Jin Jing, this is more than adequate proof of the evils of extremist nationalism. This one example is only Chinese in flavor.
As per typical of Zhang Fei, the story was completly misrepresented.
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/04.....p#comments
Volunteer in China: “I was not in fact attacked by a mob”.
Revising deeply held opinions in light of contradictory facts is difficult if not impossible.
Jing, the volunteer’s recent comments do not mitigate everything. He was confronted and followed by a mob that thought he was French, and someone in that crowd did try to attack him. That student egged on others with “an inflammatory chant.” Non-violent protesters had to walk him away from “2 violent students.”
Speaking of anti-western backlash, the Chinese Government has suddenly changed their visa rules:
Man, I am so glad I am in Korea . . .
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