Beware of criticising Chinese tourists

Pin-up model Duangjai “Jha” Phichitamphon found herself at the centre of a controversy last week after a video in which she criticises Chinese tourists went viral.

Jha recorded the video while at the airport in Jeju, South Korea, where unruly Chinese tourists pushed past her and other polite Thais in what up until then had been an orderly queue at the tax-refund counter.

Being jostled left and right, Jha’s temper rises as the video goes on, and her language beccomes increasingly impolite. At one point, with tears forming in her eyes, she warns viewers to never say ‘sang queue’ (Thai for “excuse me, there’s a line here”) as Chinese people may misinterpret it as ‘thank you. What the [expletive] would I thank them for?”

“Chinese! Unbelievable,” she concluded. 

Apart from her own Facebook, where her 130,000 followers ensure her of “celebrity” status, the “epic rant” video was spread by the Shanghaiist website, and it’s been uploaded to Youku – the Chinese version of YouTube and has gained traction on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, and the BBC.

Some comments say Jha is prejudiced and has stereotyped Chinese people as rude and unruly.

So Jha of course had to make another post defend herself, saying she lost control because of the “chaotic” situation.

“I know there are some nice Chinese out there who step out to say sorry on behalf of the misbehaving ones. But I want the issue to be publicised so that they can improve their behaviour.”

And the stereotypes cut both ways, with one commenter seizing on the misguided notion that all Thai women are transgender.

“What right does a ladyboy have to criticise others?”said a comment on the Coral.qq.com forum, casting aspersions on transgender people in general. That isn’t very nice.

The discussion thread has been translated to the Thai Web forum Pantip.com, so you can follow it there.

Jha probably read all comments. She’s since posted her photo with the caption stating simply: “I’m not a ladyboy.” 

 

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See “I Fine”, win prizes

The timing could not be better for the people behind last year’s No 1 Thai box-office smash “I Fine … Thank You … Love You”, which is celebrating a recent win of awards at a film festival just the movie’s DVD is being launched.

“I Fine” grabbed two prizes at the recent 10th Osaka Asian Film Festival, where director Mez Tharatorn was named most-promising talent and lead actress Preechaya “Ice” Pongthananikorn won the Yakushi Pearl Award.

With “I Fine” earning more than Bt200 million baht at the box office, leading man Sunny Suwanmethanon says the production team wanted give something back to fans, so those buying the DVDs will get a chance to win prizes, including Honda cars and motorcycles and iPhones.

And a DVD-only feature adds a special scene that’s inspired by “Cinderella”, which is actually referencde in the film.

Let’s see if chance to win prizes and the special DVD feature of the DVD will set a record for film studio GTH.