Taylor Townsend, an American tennis player, is playing in the Billie Jean Golden Cup finals in Shenzhen, China, AP reported Thursday, he has apologised for“Offending Chinese food” on Instagram, his social media platform.
In a video posted by Townsend, he makes fun of the Chinese food served at the official hotel, including sea cucumbers, turtles and bullfrogs, said, “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen… … aren’t bullfrogs poisonous? They give you warts and blisters ? and turtles …… Noodles are the only thing we dare eat on the table. On a scale of one to 10, I would give these foods a two.”
Townsend’s comments quickly sparked a backlash on english-and chinese-language social media platforms, with many accusing her of “Ignorance” and “Arrogance”, particularly her “Racist thoughts”.
On social media, “I won’t defend Taylor here, it’s obviously offensive, and what’s more shocking is her lack of basic understanding of different cultures outside the US,” one user made clear, while another wrote: “It’s really rude to laugh at other people’s food culture. It’s disrespectful to different cultures.”
Under public pressure, Townsend publicly apologized on the 17th, saying, “There is no excuse for this, for me, I will do better in the future.”, this time in Shenzhen to participate in the process of the competition, he obtained a“Very wonderful experience.”. (Zhou Yang)