> Most of the stereotypes of Chinese tourists equally apply to Americans.

I'm sorry this is simply not true and I'd argue this well meaning anti-racist-to-the-point-of-delusion attitude that has been drilled into the heads of Westerners is part of the problem of why China as a nation hasn't made more serious efforts to teach its citizenry the very basics of common courtesy.

I've been in airport immigration queues and watched numerous different Chinese people blatantly (there isn't a strong enough word to fully describe the magnitude) cut into every single line they could....if there was the slightest of gaps, a Chinese person would be jumping into it, completely oblivious (or not, I'm suspicious) to the rude stares of others who are politely queuing. And I won't even get into volume of speaking, driving habits, adherence to laws related to fraud, etc.

One would think their fellow countrymen who know better would say something (if I saw a Canadian pulling this stunt he'd get a severe public shaming from me), but once again most Westerners would probably disagree with this, as the very notion of groups having a social responsibility for "policing themselves" is also considered "racist", as is even noticing blatantly obvious patterns in objective reality.

EDIT: Reminded me of this video:

Why BUY books in CHINA when you can read them for FREE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=950PYt9d1Po

I think this goes a long ways to explaining why they are the way they are, types of behavior that would be unthinkable anywhere else is absolutely normal in China.

Ask any European who lives or works in a major tourist destination. Many American tourists are wonderful, but the worst of the bunch are atrocious. The yahoo tourists openly mock the local culture, they ask for prices in dollars, they wear yoga pants and tank tops in cathedrals, they get offended when the locals don't speak English. It really isn't unusual to hear someone loudly complaining about how awful everything is and how much better things are in America.

Some American tourists seem to have the attitude that American culture is objectively correct and that the rest of the world is essentially a theme park with bad service. The "USA, USA, USA" attitude doesn't travel well. It's an attitude that quickly melts away after real immersion in a foreign culture, but unfortunately many Americans don't have that luxury.

It isn't a new problem - see this wonderful 1943 training film for American troops being stationed in Britain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyYSBBE1DFw

The American yahoo is an old and usually correct stereotype, but I don't think you get how much "Chinese tourism" is it's own thing these days.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/10/07/commentary/wo...

https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/08/why-are-ch...

http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/chinese-tourism-impact/ind...

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1671504/rude-awakenin...

It's not just hand-wavvy the same the same thing. Of course the title for who has the least bad manners isn't one to brag about.

Chinese tourists in Thailand Buffet - All U Can Eat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBCLXZmMQNs

Children peeing and pooping on the floor on airlines (while being supervised by their parents)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0kj1AWSfc

Absolutely no shame. In some cases, you literally have to alter your society once Chinese tourists start to come in significant numbers, they are simply incompatible with many modern norms.

Wonderful video, thanks!

I watched that video, the following comment was the most interesting observation for me (I'd want to research this more, but it's an interesting starting point):

Historically, because the oldest bookstore which called "新华书店“ in China is state-owned, they do not have the right to drive the customers away just because they can not buy the books. On the other hand, during that time(1940s), more than 85% of the population are illiterate, so the goverment encouraged people to read in the bookstore and deliberately pulled the price of books. Economically, because the bookstore in China is a collection of various other business projects, such as Tea bars, coffee shops, Stationery shops and so on(you can find these in the veido), so a large number of customer flows will generate huge business benefits. In fact, many bookstores in the UK also allow customers to do so. These are the reasons why this 'porblem' happend in China. I suggest you, please do a little investigation before making a rash judgment

> I suggest you, please do a little investigation before making a rash judgment

"types of behavior that would be unthinkable anywhere else is absolutely normal in China."

I wonder what the store looks like at the end of the day, do you think all the books are back in their places? Or, maybe just 3 or 4 have to be reshelved? :)

There's lot of behavior that would be "unthinkable" outside its home country.

I find it more interesting to try and understand the behavior than only criticize it.

I'm sorry, but this simply is true.

While the Chinese tourists may be loud and assertive, Western tourists have have a colonial attitude and like to get into fights as well.

I've seen them yell at poor waiters because they couldn't understand English. You would think their follow countrymen would say something but instead they jeered along. Insulting them and making "ching-chong" noises (despite the fact that they were in SE Asia and their language is completely different than Chinese).

Oh, reminds me of this article:

Why BUY movies in the US when you can download them for FREE!

https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/piracy-survey-consumer...

I think this goes a long ways to explaining why they are the way they are, types of behavior that would be unthinkable anywhere else is absolutely normal...

> I'm sorry this is simply not true

It is true. There definitely is a stereotype that we are loud, obnoxious, etc. Everything people have been saying about the chinese tourist, people have been saying about americans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American_(pejorative)

But the chinese seem to be taking it to another level.

> Why BUY books in CHINA when you can read them for FREE!

I don't think that behavior is "unthinkable" outside China at all. Plenty of Americans read books in book stores. In fact, some bookstores even encourage that behavior by installing comfy chairs, couches, or coffee bars.

It has nothing to do with group trips. Even the mainland Chinese living in Sydney are like this. Their kids who study abroad can be better. If anything the tourists are a bit more chill.

I can't speak to the Australian situation, but the vast numbers of Chinese students in the UK are predominantly polite and respectful. That's no mean feat when you consider the subtle, complex and rather passive-aggressive nature of British etiquette.

I don't say this often, but this is straight up racism. You're painting an enormous group of people with a lazy and ignorant stereotype.

It isn't racism at all, literally no one claims ethnically Chinese people from anywhere other than mainland China behave like this.

Some people have to think rather than just regurgitating propaganda, this is a real problem.

Nationality is a race now? Great, when I check the race box from now on I'll just put "United States!"

Basic human ettiequte and decency is taught at home, at schools, and within the culture of society (e.g., Mr. Rogers neighborhood or Sesame Street on TV). I do notice that countries that have serious overcrowding, like mainland China, India, and probably other third-world countries, just do not bother or have no access to, or maybe just plain don't know any better.

I don't think this has anything to do with the lack of travel experience. It's just the way that they were brought up and perhaps in their village or town it's just like that.

By far the biggest reason why Chinese tourists act the way they do is because most of them are not even one generation removed from the villages. Most have not gone to university, maybe not even high school. Westerners can look down their noses all they want but when their countries were 70% agrarian, most people were pretty uncouth too.

Culture changes. Once two generations of Chinese have lived in affluent urban settings, their manners will converge with those of other developed countries.

There's no such thing as human etiquette, only a specific culture's etiquette. Many behaviours that are perfectly normal in your culture would be unspeakably rude in mine and vice-versa. From the perspective of my overcrowded island in the north Atlantic, Americans are often unbearably loud and brash; to Americans, we often come across as cold, distant and unfriendly. Travel is a skill that has to be learned - we aren't born with the ability to quickly acclimatise to different cultures.

> There's no such thing as human etiquette, only a specific culture's etiquette.

Please, name the cultures that consider defecating in public (sidewalks, shopping malls, airplane aisles) to be normal behavior when there is a washroom less than 1 minute walk away.

For this specific issue, open defecation is actually considered "normal" behavior in many less developed countries (particularly in impoverished areas). This is indeed a health concern; from what I understand, reducing open defecation is a big goal for global health organizations, and countries such as India (where open defecation is unfortunately common, and I definitely witnessed plenty of when I went many years ago) have made large information campaigns to try and discourage the practice.

From the little I can Google (http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/china/people-practicing-open...), it appears that open defecation was possibly more accepted in China, particularly in rural areas, 30 years ago. It looks like China has made a lot of progress regarding sanitation and reducing this practice, which is good. Still, I bet there's still some leftover bad habits, which may carry over to some of the tourist mishaps.

In these countries, is open defecation common as a preference, or because of lack of clean toilet facilities (India, for example, has made some efforts to install public facilities, but from what I've read they are so disgusting due to lack of maintenance, resorting to using the field is the only option).

And before I'll consider the notion that "There's no such thing as human etiquette, only a specific culture's etiquette.", I think I'm going to have to see wealthy people from some other cultures with similar behavior. Until then, my worldview is going to be based on observable reality over optimistic but baseless theories.

The premise that the cultural revolution had literally no lasting effect on anyone is an extraordinary claim, and you know what they say about extraordinary claims...

It's difficult for me to comment on those cultures too extensively since I don't live there; some articles like this -- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27775327 -- mention "ingrained cultural norms" though.

I get the impression from forums, articles, etc. that while open defecation does happen in China, it is "culturally" only really acceptable in their country for little kids. That's a big difference to the rest of the world, where nappies / diapers are more prevalent (I can't think of another country with open-crotch pants, eg kaidangku, for children like China). But my impression is nowadays that in China parents who use kaidangku are generally thought of as "peasants" / "old fashioned" / etc.

And yes I agree that it's possible that the hangover from the cultural revolution may explain a little bit about the "lack of manners" aspect of the Chinese tourist stereotype.

If you can afford to fly international, carry a $2000 purse, and drive a Mercedes, I'm sorry but "not knowing any better" gets a little old after a while.

If race wasn't a component of this discussion there's no way people would be willing to go through the mental gymnastics required to constantly find a new excuse for this being in no way whatsoever the fault of the "public pooping supervisor".

I suspect this same anti-racism-at-whatever-measure is what makes financial fraud so easy as well.

At least the queueing thing totally applies to people in China too. There's little queueing culture in many circumstances, so you either learn to shove ahead or you get left behind.

Queuing isn't the objectively correct way to wait for something, it's a specific cultural norm. Many cultures don't queue at all. Attitudes to queue-jumping vary widely, from being an immense faux pas to practically a sport. The British and Russians have a penchant for queuing-without-queuing, with each person keeping a mental note of the order in which everyone is waiting to be served.

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/everyone-line-up-canadas...

IMO it's objectively superior! I'm fine with queuing-without-queuing as long as it's not abused. Queuing at least makes the order absolutely clear so that people can't as easily change the order, intentionally or accidentally.

I assume you're only pointing out that queuing-without-queuing is a thing, not defending queue-jumping or places where the lack of any ordered system means whoever is strongest pushes to the front.

Indeed, I wouldn't say it's objectively wrong, but it's a big culture shock and can leave you feeling pretty upset if you come from a place where queuing behavior is more regular. Especially since so much of China is so crowded, so having people go in front of you "unfairly" can really screw you over, not just set you back a couple of minutes.