wow That's close Let's talk about something pretty serious. Let's talk about self-defense in China what I mean by self-defense is what if you get into trouble What if we get attacked? What if you think you're in danger and you have to lash out? What should you do? Well, I actually have an example because not that long ago I was in an alley way and just doing my usual kind of thing I go out in a film and there was an incredibly drunk man and he was harassing some passerby and he was puking in a bucket and he was just in general being very obnoxious and Some of the local people actually came to help him, right? I must mention that this was in Hong Kong by the way, not in mainland China I've been in some pretty dangerous situations in mainland China, which I will cover in this video as well But I'm just using this as an example because I've actually got footage of it, right So I was filming the fact that the local security guard came there and one of the shop owners from nearby They were actually very nice to him. They try to get him on his feet. Try to like see you is okay Try to move him along, you know So I was filming all of this and then suddenly he noticed that I had a camera on him And of course he is very unhappy. So he charged me he threw his Seafood or whatever he had in that packet at me and he came up to me obviously I stopped recording because I had to deal with the situation and he came up and he was threatening to punch me All ideas as I stood still and a very stern voice said to him in Chinese you're drunk stop be quiet and Luckily, you know those other guys came and they pulled him away But I did not punch him because let's be fair The guy ran up to me had his fists are ready to punch me if I had struck out and punched him Which is kind of a natural reaction for most people I would have been in a world of hurt that's something that you don't understand about China is that if you get into any kind of physical altercation You will always be on the losing end and there are a lot of examples that I can give you We're going to talk about Wendell Brown in a minute We're going to talk about a lot of these things and also the things that have happened to me But I just have to make it very very clear that you should never ever Strike out defend yourself. Yes Get yourself out of the situation, but do never ever ever hit anybody in China now I don't want this to be a fear mongering video I don't want you to watch this video and think oh I shouldn't go to China I might get into some trouble because in the 14 years that I lived in China and don't forget I explored most of China I am not afraid of walking down dark alleys at night to get my b-roll and to explore I only ever got into trouble twice But one of the times I got into trouble is very instructional and that's why I'm going to explain it to you. So When I first got to China One of the things that blew me away was the fact that you could go and get a foot massage For 35 RMB, which is next to nothing, you know in the West to go get a massage or a spa treatment or something It's a luxury. It's a very very expensive. So the fact that I could go and get a 45-minute foot massage for 35 RMB meant that it was just amazing. So I used to go every single time I went out drinking with my friends we'd end up going for a foot massage afterwards and sit there and drink They've got a very nice setup. You can watch TV order beer and sit there and have a foot massage So one night after a fairly heavy drinking session. I went with a friend of mine to one of these foot massage places and He was looking for something a little more now a lot of these massage places also offer Prostitution services upstairs, or at least some kind of happy ending massages things like that So what happened was he went upstairs to try and get what he was looking for? But it wasn't that kind of place and they refused him So he proposed the message lady and she said no so he came straight downstairs said to me Hey, they're not gonna give me what I'm looking for. So I'm out of here So he left and I finished up my foot massage but when I tried to leave they tried to charge me a Huge amount of money world was for me at the time for my friend's massage Which he didn't have because he literally went upstairs asked him if they do whatever he wanted. They said no and he left So I refused to pay for his massage and I just put down the money for my massage Which was 35 RMB put it down and I walked out and all of the staff from the establishment surrounded me 30 20 30 of them and they Demanded that I pay 200 rmb, not 35 for my friends massage. So I was like no I'm not paying that and I was very belligerent and adamant. I was pretty drunk at the time So as you know being belligerent, I normally am not lit that way anyway This one staff member really got in my face, and he was insulting me It was calling me names a young words, you know wasn't nonsense like really bad sort of names in my face So I said to him you are a rubbish person, which was my mistake. I should have just backed down I should have paid the money and left, you know, or at the very least just tried to call the cops-- server or something But I thought I'd fight back So I called him a bad name and he turned around and used that to his advantage Turned around to the crowd and said this foreigner called all Chinese people rubbish people and then I just got attacked by a mob basically everyone that was surrounding was not only the staff but a Lot of onlookers and bystanders were there they all started punching and kicking me. It was a crazy mob attack I got knocked to the floor at least twice. I got back up twice long and the short of it is I managed to flag over some police that were You know doing a patrol in one of their little golf carts They came over they broke up the fight and they took us all down to the police station me and those staff members Now here is the important part The negotiation phase this happens whenever there's a dispute in China the police take you to drink tea It's called they take you down to the station They took the like three or four staff members that were involved that they could identify We all went down to the police station the staff members demanded. I paid the money I said no. They didn't mind the fact that I had like a swollen head and I had marks all over me They didn't care about that. It's all about the money The obviously the the staff and whatever they didn't get into any trouble I was the one that was in trouble now because I'm a foreigner so anyway The thing is they sat down and we were negotiating And the police took my side and they said why should he pay? For a massage that he didn't get and that never happened in the first place So the end the end of this whole thing was I paid 50 RMB instead of 35, so as a little extra for like a service fee or something and They brought my bicycle because I forgot to mention that when they surrounded me. I had a bicycle they took my bicycle away from me And hid it in an alley they brought my bicycle back to me I paid the 50 RMB and I went on my merry way with a swollen head and you know Bruises and all that and they went on their merry way now This is how it works in China And if you cannot negotiate if that negotiation stage fails, that's when the law gets involved and that's what you don't want Now the reason I'm rehashing and telling the story again is because it's very relevant To what happened to Wendell Brown who I'm going to talk about in a minute But before we go there we have to talk about drunk Chinese men now Drunken men whether they're Chinese or not the world overall kind of act stupidly either in a funny way or a belligerent way or whatever But there's something different that happens in China and it's this culture of face all right, if I go to a bar in America or South Africa wherever and I see a Chinese person I'm not going to Shout hey Chinese, man. Come here. Come drink. I will buy you a drink Chinese man. Let me take photos with you Chinese, man What do you think of our? Australia, what do you think of ours are definitely but in China it's different because of the lack of exposure to foreigners there's this whole Face culture and they want you to come over to their table they want to drink with you They want to prove they can drink more than a foreigner. They want to play drinking games with you They want to take photos with you. They want to show you off to their friends invite their friends to come and meet you and It's actually really annoying I actually see this as a form of harassment because you can never really escape it case in point when I went with my wife to char Guan and we sat down in a little restaurant at the end of a Long day and this drunken guy saw me there and I just wanted to have one beer and a meal he came over and he Putting his arms around me shouting he wants to drink with me wants to buy me drinks He wants to take photos with me. Try to kiss me So I had to get out of the situation and what I did was I just got up and left That's literally the best thing you can do is just leave. I I cancelled my order for food I told the waitress cancel my order and I just left that's what you've got to do now Let's talk about Wendell Brown He came over to China to do What a lot of foreigners do English teaching But there's a different kind of a brand of English teaching where you come and you teach sports And I've actually had an interview with a guy I did this with basketball, but he does it with football So what you do is you come over you coach the kids in Basketball or football or whatever it is and at the same time you're teaching them English because he got a You know on the court shouted them and stuff and English teachings very much built into the whole learning sports thing so he was over doing this whole English sports teaching thing and He decided to go out and celebrate a friend's birthday at a bar and they went out drinking and a table of drunken Chinese men Invited him over to drink with them Typical thing they want to take photos I want to play drinking games and I'm pretty sure by that point just like me he'd gotten tired of this because you know it Does get a bit much it becomes very annoying every time you want to go out drinking or go to a bar That you get pulled into this kind of situation Sometimes you just want to be left alone. Sometimes you just want to spend time with your friends anyway, he refused them the problem is that they were Fairly, well connected fairly rich guys, and that this is what happens Those are the kind of people that usually end up in these bars or these kind of more richer sort of connected guys And when he refused them it made them lose face now to lose face in China is the biggest Insult that you could ever have its life shattering, alright? and it's it's a terrible thing. So because he made them lose face They got belligerent Started throwing beer bottles at him started to call him names all this kind of nonsense right now There is surveillance footage of what happened to Wendell Brown, but it's not incredibly clear. But basically what happened was he defended himself? He swears he didn't hit anyone. But one of the other guys got injured during this whole escapade Now they went down to the negotiating thing, you know, he was obviously arrested they went down to negotiate They wanted a hundred thousand US dollars in compensation, which he refused to pay And then he ended up going into the court system and the law system, which is what I said is what you want to avoid now here's the very interesting thing is that out of all of the people involved in this including the beer bottle throwing which can be Seen in the footage by the way, all the tussles all the nonsense He is the only person who got charged with anything and that's because he's connected guys Obviously knew the police knew the local government or whatever the case and that's why He couldn't get released is because this guy lost face. That's why this actually went forward it's all about connections about guanxi and This is a very unfortunate he should have when they're kept pestering him to drink. He should have left That's where he made his mistake. He could have avoided this 100% if he just got up and left but because he stuck around this whole thing happened so anyway he ended up getting four years jail time a four year jail term which recently was reduced to a 3-year jail to him because he renegotiated and he ended up paying $200,000 RMB to the complainant and He will actually be released in September of this year. We're keeping a close eye on the guy and wishing him the best It's an awful situation. He's in but this is what I would like all of you guys to take away from this video is Trouble can be avoided in China very easily. Alright, like I said 14 years and only two little incidents But you have to know when to just get up and go you have to always get yourself out of the situation learn from Wendell Brown and Learn from my mistakes. Now, you understand how the whole thing works. First of all get out of the situation if you can if something happens and you go to the negotiation phase Try and work it out because you don't want the law to get involved because as soon as the law gets involved Then you're looking at pretty much You know guaranteed jail time or at least being barred from leaving the country. There's also some nonsense that goes on and Nine times nine point nine times out of ten they will side with the Chinese person as you've seen in my case Nobody got into trouble that attacked me and beat me up. Even though they knew who they were Wendell Browns case Nobody else got convicted of assault even though they threw beer bottles and stuff at him The foreigner is always going to be the one and China has a 99 percent conviction rate when it comes to cold cases So, you know, you're pretty much screwed so try and not let it get to that level. So to wrap it up guys, basically Be careful. If you see trouble brewing better get yourself out of the situation. I know for a person like myself It's very difficult and I always try to get involved because I've got that built in sort of Um, I don't know where it comes from my upbringing or whatever But I always like to seek justice if I see someone in trouble. I always step in to help It's not a very healthy thing to To do in China I've gotten myself into a lot of dangerous situations because of this attitude of mine. I Still I'm not gonna change but I understand China I can speak Chinese. I have Chinese family I kind of know how to deal with these situations better than most So if you're a tourist, well, someone is unfamiliar with China Just just get yourself out of the situation if you can anyway, thank you very much. Sorry Anyway, thank you very much for watching guys. I really really appreciate you guys coming here to my channel. Absolutely Love all of you and until next time, you know the drill as always stay awesome. Hey guys, you got us in there Just made a subscriber Cool, it was really Thank you. Can you do me a favor? Can you tell everybody to stay awesome stays wholesome very cool, man Super nice to meet you, man. Oh and don't forget every single Friday. You can catch another serpentza's at a video here 1:00 p.m Eastern Standard Time See milk actually has a story about when he punched someone and went to jail upon his channel over here so you can go check that out and Don't forget most importantly every single Monday go and check out an ATV China video. Let's see milk in myself We do these adventures around the world over there
It's not just against foreigners but locals as well. If you read Chinese, I think this piece provides good insight.
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-45393506