“What the?!?” Josh and I look at each other with our mouths agape and stand up from our tiny airline seats, in our tiny aisle. Not that Josh can stand up much, being a tall guy in the window seat. We watch in astonishment as, just two rows in front of us, we see three Chinese women screaming at each other.
And when I say screaming, imagine a passionate sports fan who is about to attack a referee for a bad call. Yeah, the kind of screaming that looks like their heads are about to pop off from the pressure. “Whoa, is this actually happening?” Josh asked shaking his head.
Unruly Airline Passengers in the News Lately
If you have been reading the news much lately, then you’ve probably noticed that there has been a lot of press lately about altercations on airplanes between passengers, and even the flight crew. From arguments, physical assaults, hot water dousing, opening exit doors, etc.
Ironically, one of the stories that I read only days ago included the same airline that we are traveling on, Air Asia, and even the same airport in Bangkok. Unfortunately, all the stories I read lately involved Chinese passengers as the aggressors. And you guessed it, we are heading from Thailand to China and the plane is mostly full of Chinese.
Even though we love to fly, we understand that it can be stressful on some. I mean, you are essentially trapped in a tiny metal tube with a ridiculous number of other people; sometimes, for long periods of time. And while we all have our own air travel pet peeves and have had to deal with less than courteous people, it doesn’t mean that you can act like an animal or disrespect others.
And in this case, it unfairly labels all Chinese tourists as being bad, which they are not.
So What Was the Fuss About Anyway?
Honestly, since these women were screaming at each other in Chinese, we had to guess what all the yelling was about. From the gestures, it seemed as though a woman (we will call her “A”) put her stuff into the overhead bin, and another woman (let’s say, “B”) got mad at her.
Perhaps “A” moved “B’s” stuff out of the way? Or maybe “A” had too much stuff that she was cramming into the bin? Since “A” put her stuff in the bin and then sat 2 rows back, maybe woman “B” felt that bin was only for her row? We aren’t sure. But boy did woman “B” decide it was appropriate to lash into “A” with a verbal assault worthy of the Real Housewives.
Then for whatever reason, woman “B’s” adult daughter, who was sitting across the aisle, decided to join in. The three of them went at it for a while before flight attendants intervened, after all, we were in the middle of the boarding process and the flight crew was a bit busy.
Luckily, they arrived just in time to block woman “B” as she physically lunged at woman “A.” If she hadn’t been blocked at just that moment, she would have smacked “A” right across the face…impressively hard!
Inconsiderate to the Flight Crew, and Other Passengers
The flight attendants put themselves in the middle and tried to calm the situation. Unfortunately, we were in the mid-section of the plane, so this whole fiasco was blocking people trying to get to their seats. Not helping the situation was the fact that there was a language barrier.
Our flight was operated by Thai Air Asia. The attendants are somewhat multi-lingual, but not necessarily fluent in Chinese. However, there seemed to be one male flight attendant who was. So he was trying his best to communicate with the women and calm them down.
Although honestly, these women could not have cared less about him, or anyone else on the plane.
This is what really irked me the most. Besides the fact that the argument seemed completely ridiculous, none of these women seemed to care about anyone else on this plane. The were screaming disrespectfully, delaying the boarding process (thereby delaying the plane), and causing children to cry — yes, queue the screaming kids too! Awesome.
I Have Never Wanted to Say “STFU” in Chinese So Badly!
At first, I found it slightly amusing. I’ve never seen a fight like this on an airplane. Of course, I’ve seen some disagreements before, but nothing to this level. Josh and I joked that if this had happened in the US, air marshals would have long removed all these women from the flight (at least we would hope).
But after quite some time of the women screaming, and the kids crying, I was so over it. It was a late evening flight and we already weren’t scheduled to get into Guangzhou, China until after 11 pm. Plus, the plane had already been delayed by an hour before we even started to board. And now this?!?!
I never thought I would have wanted to know how to curse someone out in Chinese so badly. After all, we were the only white people on the plane, and maybe it would have gotten someone’s attention. But alas, I only know a handful of polite Chinese words.
What Would You Do if You Saw a Fight on an Airplane?
Another aspect to the situation that really bothered me was the fact that these women were traveling with family. And yet, no one else in their families stepped in to stop the situation. Only the one daughter stepped in, and she actually participated in attacking woman “A” and making the situation worse.
At one point, I shook my head in shame at the daughter’s husband. He just stood there, looking as though he was helpless. If this had happened in the States, I would have certainly stepped in somehow in an attempt to diffuse the situation, and get their asses to sit down. But in this case, there wasn’t much we could do to help.
All we could do was scowl at them to convey our complete disgust with their behavior. Josh joked that he probably should’ve gotten his phone out to record it. But alas, we did not. I think we were in shock.
Finally, things calmed down enough for the plane to finish boarding and for us to take off. Although, the situation was far from diffused. Actually, I am pretty sure that the women still weren’t in their seats when the plane taxied to prepare for takeoff. In the end, we were relieved to be on our way and laughed it off. Shaking my head, I tell Josh “Welcome to China, I wonder what else awaits!”
Never experienced something such as that on an airplane but after living in Taiwan for a while, I’ve come to appreciate the anger that some Chinese women can have. It’s pretty intense. The best is also transportation related. Chinese women in Taiwan RUN onto the trains. Elbowing, pushing and every other form of battery is used to get onto the train and preferably into a seat. CRAZYYYYY!
Thanks for reading Adrian and for sharing your story! We certainly aren’t trying to call out any one ethnicity, because there are intense people everywhere! But it was definitely a sight to see between these women!
Josh can attest can relate to your train experience too. He spent the last couple weeks in Beijing and he said he saw some of the craziest behavior including pushing, elbowing, and people RUNNING to smash themselves into other people in order to squeeze onto the train.
He said it was the wildest thing he had ever seen. Survival of the fittest, I guess!
Cheers!
– Liz
The airplane passengers in China were the noisiest I’ve encountered anywhere in the world. I figured it’s kind of like how Chinese restaurants tend to be really noisy and bustling. I didn’t witness any fights while we were flying around China, though. I think that the Chinese people were not overly concerned about personal space. I was in an aisle seat, and someone standing in the aisle wanted to talk to the person sitting next to me in the middle seat. He leaned waaaay over so that his face was closer to hers. That meant that his belly was practically shoved against my own face. Then, they proceeded to have a long conversation. At least they weren’t bothering anyone else by talking too loud.
Thanks for the comment Michele! True, since being in China, we have noticed that the natural conversation voice seems to be louder than what we are used to back at home — and sometimes it really does look like people are arguing when they are not. In this case, it was definitely an argument — bordering on physical assault. But that’s the reason we enjoy traveling, to discover these differences and be exposed to social norms that are completely foreign to us. Some things we can get used to, but others are still a bit uncomfortable.
Happy travels!
– Liz
I have never ever experienced this. I am thankful I have never experienced this kind of rude behaviour. You make a good point. It is already a stressful event being stuffed in a small tin space where there is hardly any food and it’s cramped so it’s easy to be feeling nervous already. People should remember that everyone on the plane feels similar and bit their tongues when they feel like being cranky.
They should have been kicked off. Can’t keep your composure? Then GTFO.
HAHA – right?!?! Crazy people out there. Who would even think it’s OK to act like that? Very strange to see!
– Liz
Wow!! That sounds ridiculous!
Why people can’t just chill the **** out I’ll never know! Life’s short, let’s all just enjoy it *Cue the hippy music*!
I’ve not been to China yet but it sounds like I’ll need to make sure I’ve got my elbows sharpened and my wits about me!
Glad you both lived to tell the tale :o)
Hope you’re having fun out there!
Thanks Bex! Exactly — everyone just chill out, is it really THAT big of a deal?!?! 🙂
– Liz
Crazy, “STFU” would have run through my mind as well.
I’ve certainly seen my share of rude behavior by Chinese. It’s left me wondering if it’s a cultural lack of restraint, just plain bad manners, or if perhaps it is partly due to their complete lack of experience in being in other cultures.
It was only recently that China even had a middle class with disposable income or the freedom and time to travel. So perhaps it is a lack of education and experience with knowing how to travel? I dunno … it’s just something I’ve been wondering.
Thanks for the comment Linda!
Yeah, I think it really is a combination of many of those factors. Since living here, we know that the Chinese really are caring people…but it’s in a very different way than we are used to in the West. On the whole, “manners” are not the same as what we were taught, and restraint is something we rarely ever see here. It’s just their culture.
But while I think lack of education about other cultures can contribute, I really think part of it stems from a sense of entitlement that the middle class here have. China is still very much a class society in some ways, and they do act like it. Whether they intend to be rude or not, I don’t know. But it can definitely come off that way.
Thanks for reading & happy travels to you!
– Liz