'Uncle, you are a hero': Man praised for helping US tourist after run-in with rude fruit seller in Chinatown

A fruit stall seller has come under fire for her rude behaviour, following a viral post made by an American tourist in Singapore.

The tourist, who goes by Sophisticated_beauty_868 on Instagram, posted a video on Tuesday (Feb 10), with the caption: "Among Singapore. Beautiful city, lies a Beast. Welcome to Chinatown. Highly unrecommended."

It is not clear when the video was taken.

The beginning of the clip shows the fruit seller speaking to someone off camera in a condescending tone, before staring at the tourist holding the camera.

The tourist asks: "Are you ready to help me?"

The seller replies: "Yes, now it's your turn, what you want?"

The tourist points to a bag of grapes and asks: "What is this?" To which the seller retorts curtly: "You want to buy or you want to ask?"

"I'm asking you because I don't know what it is," the tourist replies, sounding ticked off, as her companion advises her to drop the conversation. 

"Let's go, we don't need it," the other woman says.

"So I tell you, if you got money..." the fruit seller continues, before she is cut off mid-sentence by an older man who intervenes, holding his hand up in an effort to defuse the tense situation.

It is not clear how the man is related to both parties, but he appears to be a passerby and is seen holding a paper bag of personal items.

The tourist tells the man that she wanted to know what the bag of fruits are so that she could buy it.

"Their attitude is very nasty, very nasty," she adds.

Argument ignites between seller and man

Waving his hand seemingly in admonishment of the seller, the man helps the tourist and tells her that the fruits she is pointing to are seedless grapes. He also grabs a bag for her to take a closer look.

"Thank you. We wanted to know, we don't know," the tourist explains.

Just as the man begins to retreat from the situation, the seller then claps back, "Yah, yah, he is very free for you."

Hearing this, the man snaps: "You very rude ah!"

"Ya, very good... you very good," the seller responds, igniting an argument which escalates into a shouting match.

"They're tourists you know," says the man as he points a finger at the seller, before scolding her in Mandarin: "Don't throw Singapore's face". 'Throwing face' in Chinese refers to the concept of being a disgrace. 

The tourist then walks away after thanking the man, who is shown still arguing with the fruit seller.

"I'm recording, that is disgusting, disgusting," the tourist repeats.

Netizens chime in

The video has since gone viral, with about 15,000 'likes' and over 1,000 comments.

Netizens appeared to take the side of the tourist, affirming that the seller's behaviour was uncalled for.

Wrote one user: "Oh my, she's so rude! That man told her that she is throwing the face of Singapore. Yes, she is! As a Singaporean, I apologise for this woman's behaviour.

"As a Singaporean, I'm sorry for your unpleasant experience. Please do not let one rude lady affect your holiday experience. The kind man was scolding her for you guys," another said.

Some others, however, appeared disbelieving that the tourist could not recognise what the grapes were.

The tourist replied to one commenter: "I'm coming from the US, the size of the grapes was questionable as many other things. The question was for knowledge before buying... The point of the matter is her behaviour was uncalled for, hence the young man stepped in."

Many netizens also praised the man for stepping in to help.

"Uncle you are a hero," and "Hire this man to be Singapore's ambassador to the world!" two commenters wrote.

Noted another user: "Sorry this happened to you here. Not everyone is like that — there are good people too. I'm thankful that the kind uncle came forward to help and even stood up for you."

AsiaOne has reached out to Sophisticated_beauty_868 for more information.

[[nid:728967]]

candicecai@asiaone.com