Shanghai Disneyland is the most-anticipated theme park of 2016. A recent poll about the theme park, conducted by Shanghai Daily, asked readers what they were most concerned about when visiting the upcoming Disney Resort. The theme park, that will open on June 16th of this year, has been garnering lot of buzz and excitement from eager enthusiasts waiting to visit what will be one of the world’s biggest Disney theme parks.
The survey revealed that people’s manners are of great concern to the park’s future visitors. While 38.1% of the surveyees is worried about crowd management and wait times, 26% of them are worried that their fellow visitors will not behave appropriately.
The poll’s outcome can be linked to the many news reports over the last years about Chinese tourists engaging in “inappropriate and rude behavior” while traveling.
One example is the recent case where a Chinese tourist flung chairs in the check-in area when his flight at South Korea’s Jeju Airport was canceled due to bad weather. Last year, Chinese tourists protested flight delays by shouting out China’s national anthem. Other incidents include a brawl that ended with one Chinese tourist pouring boiling water down the back of a stewardess, and another threatening to set off a bomb on the plane. These incidents have prompted the National Tourism Administration of China to track the actions of Chinese citizens when traveling abroad. They now maintain a database of such citizens, who will be blacklisted and prevented from further travel in the future.
Reactions of participants in the poll have by and large been of concern, with some netizens calling Chinese manners “terrible”, and others dreading spitting and shouting Chinese tourists. One participant is not looking forward to Disneyland Shanghai: “The horror of 10,000 little emperors and their parents thinking that they can do whatever they like…”
Netizens on Sina Weibo also have been skeptical about the opening of Disneyland in Shanghai. Many Weibo users express their concerns about misbehaving tourists and unmanageable crowds. Weibo user Lucky says that Chinese tourists don’t just have a bad reputation abroad, but also within Mainland China.
Disneyland opened in Hong Kong in 2005. The 2016 Shanghai resort will be the first Disney park within Mainland China.
The range of reactions signal a cautious excitement over the launch of Disneyland in Shanghai, mixed with concerns over people’s misbehavior and crowd management. For many netizens, however, the anticipation is much bigger than any concern. “I have been to Hong Kong Disneyland three times already,” one netizen says: “now we can finally go to Shanghai!”
– By Mahalakshmi Ganapathy & Liu Liu
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Mahalakshmi Ganapathy is a Shanghai-based Sinologist-to-be, pursuing her graduate degree in Chinese Politics at East China Normal University. Her interests include Sino-India comparative studies and Chinese political philosophy.©2016 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
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