Host of fan meeting in HK blasted for remarks

The host of a meeting of fans of Thai idol duo BKPP in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region drew sharp criticism after a video went viral showing him making separatist remarks at the meeting and discriminating against mainland fans.

The event for two popular Thai idols — Billkin & PP Krit — who go by "BKPP", was held on Tuesday at Hong Kong's Kowloon Bay International Trade& Exhibition Centre.

After taking the stage, the anchor, a Cantonese-speaking man, immediately asked if there were any people from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and then deliberately dragged his voice and asked whether anyone was from China.

Fans instantly shouted their protest that Taiwan and Hong Kong SAR were both part of China, the video showed.

The host continued to ignore the audience's protests, as they chanted "China, China", in English.

Moreover, he intentionally introduced the rules of a game in Cantonese, even though some of the fans chosen to participate in the game were from the mainland, and only spoke Mandarin. The host went so far as to tell the fans in Mandarin that if they couldn't understand Cantonese, they couldn't play. He was then booed and hissed at by fans.

The two Thai idols asked staff on scene what was happening and then approached the fans and explained the rules in English.

One netizen commented: "Aren't you speaking Chinese? Don't you know that your motherland is China? Hong Kong and Taiwan are both from China. Go home and study history well. Please don't come out and make a fool of yourself."

The incident quickly went viral on social media and became the second most popular trending topic on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.

Following the strong backlash, it was reported that the male host was replaced by another for the BKPP fan meeting on Wednesday.

Late last month, three Cathay Pacific Airways stewardesses were fired after making discriminatory comments following a mainland passenger's request for a blanket. One of the flight attendants mocked the Mandarin-speaking passenger for mistakenly using the English word "carpet" instead of "blanket". She said "If you can't say blanket in English, you can't have it. ... Carpet is on the floor. Feel free if you want to lie on it." The comments triggered social media criticism and led to public outcry over the carrier's discriminatory service.