 This incident that just happened between two Chinese tourists and their South Korean Airbnb host is going viral right now because it kind of perpetuates the negative stereotype that mainland Chinese tourists are the worst. Oh my gosh, man. I can't believe this turned into such an international incident. Perhaps it is more complicated. Once we look at the internals, but I must say immediately a first look, it does not look good for the Chinese. Yeah. We're going to go through the multitude of comments on this guy. So, uh, yeah, again, why, why would I care so much about this? Well, guess what? It leads to a larger idea and it's a proxy for something else. So please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the hot pop boys. Long story short, Andrew, there's a couple from mainland China. They want to take a vacation to Seoul, Korea for a month. They book a spot, but right after they book it and they're flying over, they realize that they feel like the host misrepresented how close that spot was to the city core. Like basically maybe they thought it was like 10 minutes out, but it's like 40 minutes out. So then they asked for a refund. The guys look, no, I cannot give you a refund. So they were like, oh, okay, you cannot give me a refund. Right? I'm going to turn on all the lights and all the water and then leave. And then they racked up a $1,500 bill that the host had to foot. Of course, it got crazy. They were like, oh, yeah, we're going to report it to Chinese embassy. Once they started arguing. And then of course the internet piled on Andrew, this side came in saying, oh man, I've been screwed by Airbnb host before. Other people are like, no way, man, Chinese mainland tourists are the worst with the worst behaviors and worst manners. I'm on the Korean side. And it just turned into a bigger thing than you would possibly think it should be. Yeah, let's get into the comment section. Somebody said Airbnb ain't even worth it no more in 2023, man. Just book hotels, man. Everybody's going to war with each other. Litigation, all these fees and cleaning fees. What the F? No, at least hotels, you can argue with someone at corporate or they have like customer service people who are dedicated to dealing with these issues. Because sometimes Airbnb hosts, you're dealing with one other person and they might be nice or they might not be. And it's not and it's within the contract. You got to read the fine print. Somebody said, yeah, man, being a landlord just comes with risks guys. And sometimes landlords themselves are deceitful when they list their own properties Andrew, we've actually been victim to this before. By the way, I am not saying I would ever do what the Chinese couple did. I'm just saying initially it is true that sometimes people misrepresent how close their thing, how convenient their locations are. No, I mean, I think leaving the water on for a month straight is crazy. I mean, that's like, that's pretty bad. It's wasteful. But I've heard a lot of stories from people who weren't Chinese and about hosts who weren't Korean and, you know, people of all different colors, leaving Airbnb's in a big mess and everybody getting mad. So it definitely does happen to everybody. Somebody did say, one opportunist meets another, ha, greed clashes with pettiness. Somebody said, yeah, I like their revenge style because they tried to get screwed early and then they screwed them back. It's only right and I for an eye, you screw me, I screw you. And somebody said, oh my gosh, what a damage to the environment. And this sort of goes along with this narrative right now, Andrew, that Chinese mainland people, I'm not saying it's true, but I'm just saying there's a stereotype right now. But there might be some truth to it that they don't care about the environment. Yeah. And this is seen in a lot of different ways. And by the way, when we're talking about mainland Chinese, we're not talking about all mainland Chinese. We're just talking about a certain group. So it's kind of hard to stick with people, though. You're talking about a certain group. Yeah. It seems like it's been seared into the consciousness. I mean, is it the same group where two Chinese international students buy like six dishes at a restaurant and then eat like 25% of each dish and then leave the rest of it? Or is it more of the same people who don't really like to line up in lines? You know, when they're going on tours in different countries. Oh, yeah, is this a sacred starfish in Thailand? I like it. Yeah. Or when they go to Europe, they're kind of acting rude, not necessarily doing violent and illegal things, but definitely doing things that are breaking the decorum of the environment. Certainly not cooth fully, but I would gladly take their travel money. You know, things that were like Taiwanese people would go. No, no, no, Taiwanese people don't do that. They don't do any of that. Taiwanese, we're from Taiwan. No. No, for sure. I mean, there are incidents that really show that there is some pattern. Obviously, it's not all Chinese tourists, not even a majority, but that slice that's getting out there to the world. And apparently people people really, really don't like that group. Yeah, I do think David, would you say it's like, how do we describe the class? Like oftentimes it's people who just got money and they don't. And they were like, maybe like farmers in a village, they got money. So they don't really like what they're saying in China called to how to how was like potato fortune, right? Basically, people who are potato farmers, maybe the government needed to take their land for a project or reclaim it and they got paid out just, you know, and maybe not to become super rich, but like enough to travel. Let's just say this. I don't think that they're bad people. I just don't think that manners is the first thing on their mind. And of course, that led to the negative Chinese comment section. And we got to get to, yeah, that is. Oh, yeah, I can't do the Chinese action. Someone was like, yeah, that is just Chinese being Chinese. That is how dirty the Chinese people are. Oh my gosh. See, look, everybody says that we are racist for not liking the Chinese. But look again and again, we have all these incidents to prove that our feelings are correct. You know what I wish? What if this news story, instead of saying Chinese tourists and South Korean, because now it's like a national geopolitical thing? Right, it's turned into a proxy war for like everything. Because these two people are no longer individuals. They represent the countries that they're from. But in the mannerisms of 100 percent of the people. Yeah, what if it was just the names were Ludi versus Park Soo Jung, you know, but like then they're individuals and then maybe it's not as racial and nationalistic, I don't know. But other people chimed in, they weren't Korean. Someone said, yeah, ma'am, Chinese people are the worst tourists. Japanese are the best. I noticed it when I was in Europe. OK, I do agree. I think Japanese tourists are the best. All right, but but but what if they were going by who bought the most Louis bags to stimulate the French economy by foreign capital inflows? Then it would go to those terrible Chinese tourists that they're referring to. So, you know, the almighty dollars or euros or whatever, talk, in a way, still more than, you know, just how cooth. Oh, some of the years behaving at the Louvre. And that's a great point because it's like I think a lot of department stores and a lot of Airbnb hosts and business owners are like, dang, the Chinese are bringing in so much money and they're such good customers. But then once in a while, there's quite a lot of Chinese people that really piss me off. So I don't know how to feel about them because they're pissing me off or they're paying me. Well, what a conundrum. They're pissing and paying you off. And I think Koreans feel it, too, because obviously Korea is very trendy right now. So they're probably thinking like, oh, my God, like I like a Chinese customer. But like, why do they have to have no manners? And like, there's so many of them, but they like they buy a lot of things. So I don't know. Yeah, well, what we call this was a conundrum, a classical quandary, if you will. Somebody said, obviously, guys, this is the new stereotype or reputation that the new money tourists from China, mainland China have developed over the past what 10, 20 years, would you say? Yeah, I thought the stereotype was going down, but stories like this kind of reinforce it. But I do think it's getting better because I remember 10 years ago, there was some really bad stories of them mess like Chinese tourists messing with artifacts and like just doing really stupid, kind of like disrespectful things, I would say. Yeah. And I don't think they always knew what they were doing by like holding up the starfishes in the light that were supposed to be like left in the ocean and stuff like that, but are wearing the face keenies everywhere. But, you know, it's like a process for these people. And they were like working in the potato fields and now they got money to travel internationally. It's, you know, it's crazy to say, all right, let's get into our takeaways. Why do you think that this whole piece of news went so viral? Is it because essentially it was just super stereotypical? It was just super stereotypical, you know, South Korea, obviously, is like the good Asians right now in media, especially. And then obviously Chinese tourists always have a reputation to be honest. So I guess, yeah, just kind of fitting to it. But there's a lot of like different stereotypes of different Asian groups. I would say that new any time there's news, Andrew, from Asia, where like, for example, a Japanese guy marries a Vocaloid, does like a marries a waifu pillow or maybe denies a war crime. That's going to go viral, right? Because those are almost like stereotypical talking points that people say about the Japanese. Right. Yeah. Or when the Japanese fans at the World Cup are super polite, that also fits the stereotype, but a good stereotype, right? That they're like unbelievably almost like Nintendo Wii lobby type behavior that you can't even imagine. Right. What about Koreans being like thinking they're the best Asians and like talking down on other Asians or talking about their soft power dominance, possibly some plastic surgery or anything that fits the K rage stereotype of maybe like going out super hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that that's definitely those are all like the the Korean stereotypes. And what we mean, Korean, I'm talking about like from Korea, right? Like Korea. If Chinese have really bad manners, if they're ruining Mother Earth, I think this particular case about Airbnb turning on the water and the lights, that was both because it was bad manners and technically ruining the earth. I would say another Chinese stereotype is like just studying to death. Like those that one video where that Chinese brother is crying because he couldn't teach his sister math problems. Or when that Chinese father or when that Chinese father like is crying in agony because the kid like got couldn't understand calculus, right? Or man, yeah, that is so Chinese, super Chinese man. Viet's maybe doing something in the streets, something gangster, maybe gambling. I don't know. I would think that that would go viral, right? Because people are like, yeah, that's what you guys do. Maybe the Philippines having some sort of color is colorism issue or some corruption in some sort of beauty pageant. Something with colonialism or Thailand having like crazy sex related wacky stories or something with a corrupt new king who's a bad king, even though his dad was a good king, the son is a bad king. Yeah, I guess. What do you think right now? Like, Andrew, these are the things that are going viral in Asia. I guess in America, it would be like if people whitewash a show that was originally minority characters or people black or Latinized a show that was originally a white character. And then people have like an anti-anti-reverse like basically what I'm saying is there's just certain stories coming out of every country that on an international basis is going more viral because they fit the stereotype. Yeah, and I think for a lot of Chinese people, like if you're a mainland Chinese student or international student or tourist, right, it's like, do you have to act extra good to make up for the bad Chinese? You're saying if you're traveling out of mainland China and you are aware, I don't know if a lot of them are, it's difficult for them to act on it. That there's this overarching archetype. Do you got to try to reverse it on them? I mean, I don't think people do, to be honest. I mean, I would say I just think they're not the bad stereotypes, but they're not like trying to act Japanese. Do you put that responsibility on yourself? Some people do and some people don't depends on how their group is viewed. You know, obviously, I know people in America who are like, man, you know, like, you know, like I know black dudes who are even like, hey, you know, man, I just try to be extra friendly to let them know that, you know, there's friendly black guys out there. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I guess if that's the stereotype and you feel like that's your obligation or that's your duty to try to combat that, then that's that's a lot to carry though. And probably internally within a group, there's disagreements on how to handle societal archetypes that are thrust on you. And at the same time, it's not wrong to be like, well, that's not me. I don't care. I'm just going to be me. Why should I have to be defined by the worst people in my group? All right. Should Chinese be ashamed of this stereotype? Even though, of course, it's not even 50 percent of the population. It's just one pie slice. But apparently that one pie slice, that one layer of a seven layer cake is so like so obtuse that it really sticks with people. People just only think about that. There's a seven layer burrito and people are only thinking about one of the seven layers. You know, no one ever thinks like when they meet a nice Chinese tourist that they're like, oh, actually Chinese tourists are all nice. You think they're just like, yeah, that it was crazy. That Chinese group of Chinese tourists had like three Japanese people in it. Or like, yeah, I thought that group, I guess they must be Japanese influenced Chinese people. Oh, yeah, they were Taiwanese. I would say this, like to me, one thing I noticed is that, like, as far as like internally within the Chinese world, only the middle class to upper middle class people care about how they're perceived. Because think about it, if you're poor, you're almost in survival mode. You're just worried about it's like you and your family. And if you're rich, you almost have so much wealth and like ability to like shape shift with like liquidity, your world and like the spaces you're in, like, of course, everybody's going to be catering to you when you're in first class, right? But the middle class is more like interfacing, I guess, like having their experiences swayed by people's overarching images of the countries they come from or their heritage. Yeah, yeah, exactly. If you're really rich, you probably don't even care how your group is viewed. You just care how you're viewed. No, you be a rich person, a billionaire from like the worst country in the world, and you're just like, but I'm defined by being a billionaire. Yeah, the average person is definitely defined more by the worst group of people or like the worst acting, I guess, a group of people. So I guess I don't know. I mean, it's very interesting. I don't I think honestly, if you're Chinese and you know that there's so many Chinese people out there, you just know that it's almost like, man, I can't even feel bad about it because there's just it's just going to happen again. Yeah, honestly, I would say that if you really know what it's like to be Chinese, man, there's it's the biggest group on earth, right? Obviously, India is going to overtake it this year. But it's like there's so much variance. Like if you were to graph like income ranges and behavioral ranges on a plot chart, it would not look like very standardized. It would just be like all over the place. All right, everybody, we're going to wrap up right there. You let us know in the comments down below what you think about it because yet is the stereotype changing? Are Chinese stories getting better or should you just not worry about it because you're an individual and there's nothing you could do about the other millions of people out there? And do you think in this specific host versus customer Airbnb case, it was 50-50 or do you think it leaned more one way or the other? Actually, on the internet, Andrew, I was surprised to see it was actually kind of even. I thought everybody was going to support the South Korean host. Right. But I guess some so many people have had bad experiences with Airbnb hosts that swung it the other way to be 50-50. I don't know. Let us know in the comments down below what you guys think. Thank you. Thank you so much for watching. We are the hot pop boys. And until next time, we out.