We were at Harry's the night of the Olympics opening. The ceremony was shown on the TVs there - just like how any major sporting event is screened. We thought it was a nice touch, although we were really there to grab a drink and listen to Paul.
Suddenly, we heard screams, cheers and loud China! China! chants. We turned and saw a group of about 10 young Chinese nationals shouting away. We, the bartenders, and the other patrons gave knowing looks to each other and smiled. There was a sense of understanding about the pride of the Chinese. We clapped along with them. The opening ceremony, after all, was really well executed and spectacular, understandably a milestone event to be proud of.
Then, it was time for Paul to play his first set of the night. Just like any other evening, the sound of the TVs were turned off. 30 seconds into his playing, a young Chinese man with funky spectacles and a fedora hat came up and asked him not to play so that the volume of the TVs could be turned back on. This was despite that fact that the tables around the stage were all full of other patrons there specifically to listen to Paul's performance.
Paul diplomatically told him that he could not, and asked him to speak with the manager. The young man continued to stand in front and was persistent in his request. Finally, one of the other patrons got fed up and asked him too to talk to the manager. At that point, the young man flared up, and started to point and shout at that patron.
Thankfully the manager quickly came and managed to lead the young man away. Not long after, the group of Chinese started to shout and cheer even louder in bid to drown out Paul's performance, much to the annoyance of everyone else.
Finally, they must have realised that all the cheering would not be enough for Harry's to cancel a planned performance. They walked out of the bar, but not before the young man went back to that patron to drop a few sarcastic comments, and each person in the group individually giving Paul dirty looks.
We cheered when Paul chose to sing "I Can See Clearly Now" soon after!
Being soft-hearted, I did feel a tinge of sorry for the young Chinese, full of earnestness and nationalistic pride. But really, the Olympics opening could have been viewed at home, and their behaviour without regard for others, was really unacceptable.
Tell me what you think!
5 comments:
not acceptable behavior from the chinese group. majority wins anyway. if they're so patriotic, go home and organize something and ra-ra among themselves would be the best.
"your party ain't my party." and their boorishness simply turns me off their country.
imp: It was sad because everyone started off being happy for them, but the subsequent behaviour was off-putting!
agree with imp. not acceptable at all and too self-centrered. the world doesn't revolve around olympics in beijing.
Actually I'm wondering why there's a performance during the Olympics opening. Clearly people wanna watch that! ;)
If the gig wasn't scheduled, then there wouldn't have been conflict and everyone would have been happy watching the opening.
There was a false impression of choice on the Chinese!
moo: I think everyone was happy for them, but it is not THE place to focus on the Olympics.
anon: The gigs are staple! Sporting events are screened all the time with the various seasons. So it was no different from any other day, and really, it shouldn't need to be.
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