Liu Ye fights a drunken foreigner over a taxi

Chongqing Times, June 16, 2010

Today is the Duanwu Festival, a time for Dragon Boat races and zongzi, rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Today's Chongqing Times reports in its top headline that Bo Xilai, the city's party secretary, held a workshop yesterday to address issues related to consumption of zongzi by the masses: "He said, rich and poor alike must all be able to eat zongzi comfortably before it can be called a holiday. We must let the poor masses have an appetite for a real meal."

Twenty RMB in "zongzi money" was set to be distributed to more than 3 million people who otherwise could not afford to celebrate the occasion.

In the sidebar is an interesting headline: "Drunken foreigner curses, Liu Ye adminsters a physical lesson."

Early in the morning of June 15, producer Huang Bin posted an update to his microblog:

Before the Yan Po affair has subsided, I've heard of another beating. After a party at the Shanghai Film Festival had finished, a young actor came downstairs to get a taxi. A drunken foreigner grabbed it first and said "fuck you," and the young actor went up and walloped him fairly savagely. Later the police intervened to stop things, and the situation is being taken care of at the moment. I'm delighted. If I were there, I'd have beaten him the same.

As opposed to the Yan Po affair, in which a director was stabbed in what seems to be a case of a jealous ex taking revenge, the episode that comes to mind is Ning Hao's recent beat-down of a foreign swimmer who was rude about sharing a pool lane.

The incident took place on the night of June 12, according to Liu's manager, who confirmed that Liu had gotten into a fight with a drunken foreigner who said "Fuck you." Liu's face got scraped and his trousers ripped during the scuffle.

Liu Ye posted a rather vague explanation to his blog yesterday afternoon:

To put a stop to random conjecture and subjective imagination, I make the following simple statement concerning a small conflict that had a beautiful resolution:

At around 11 pm, a taxi was parked at the entrance to a particular hotel. I entered the car from the south side, and my opponent exited the car from the north side and settled the fare. Because of language problems, there was a misunderstanding. To figure out what "Fuck you" meant and to who'd use it, conflict arose. It was brief, and there were injuries on both sides but no deaths, and it was resolved with a handshake and friendly words. He said, "friends," I said 哥们 ("bros"), in echoes of "no discord, no concord."

1. I'm amazed at the quick response of the Shanghai police. In seconds, before the thing was over, the police arrived and quickly mediated or scared off two people.

2. Persons at the scene: Myself, my opponent (foreign), my two friends (male), my opponent's female friend (compatriot), one taxi driver, one valet/doorman, and police officers who came later.

3. No third party intervened. My opponent was well-built; there is no question of bullying.

4. Fighting is wrong. From now on I will do nothing of an adolescent nature.