瑞典遊客事件

09-20

瑞典遊客事件

來自專欄通過新聞報紙學英語

瑞典遊客事件

林立豐 BUMBLEBEE英語課堂今天

9月2日，曾先生及其父母赴瑞典旅遊，因預定酒店入住時間有差，想在大廳里休息被拒，被酒店方要求「立刻滾出去」，後來瑞典警方過來以後，把曾先生的父親從座位上拉倒拖出了酒店。在酒店門口，曾先生一家和警方發生了一些摩擦，隨後曾先生一家被拖到斯德哥爾摩市區幾十公里外的一座公墓附近，在好心路人的幫助下，一家人才得以返回市區。

今天我們來看「瑞典遊客事件」英文報道。

新聞來源有：

1 Global Times

Chinese tourist claims Swedish policehit elderly parents, demanding release of videos

2 The Guardians

China accuses Sweden of violatinghuman rights over treatment of tourists

The Chinese tourist who was allegedly manhandled by Swedish police claimed to the GlobalTimes that the police had hit his elderly parents in vehicles and demanded the release of relevant videos.

A special prosecutor "is looking into the incident since it involved a police officer," Swedish foreign affairs department staff said when reached by Pear Video.

Zeng is the surname of the Chinese tourist who, together with his parents, was reported to have been dragged out of a hotel by police in Stockholm and later dropped off near acemetery. He refused to give his full name.

Zengs mother, 64, was taken in a police vehicle with her hands behind her back, and police allegedly hit her in the vehicle when she"was tired of the position and just moved her body a bit," Zeng recalled his mothers words to the Global Times on Sunday.

His father, 67, was "rudely taken out" of the hostel they planned to stay by police and fainted when he was carried inside another police vehicle until he was "hit by the police on his chest,"Zeng claimed.

Zengs father suffers from a heart disease, according to Zeng.

Zeng claimed that he himself was also taken inside another vehicle, and he and his parents were then driven to an area close to a graveyard in Stockholm.

Zeng and his parents traveled from China to Europe in mid-August, and arrived at a hostel in Stockholm in early morning of September 2, only to realize that they had arrived early and it was not yet check-in time.

Aftonbladet, a newspaper in Stockholm, on Sunday quoted the hostel staff as saying they were verbally threatened by Zeng before they were"unable to respond to the situation and called the police."

"It is a lie," Zeng told the Global Times on Sunday. "I never said any dirty words to the staff," he said.

A viral video showed Zeng making an emotional appeal and throwing himself on the ground in front of the police.

Thousands of Chinese net users and a Swedish passerby who recorded the scene suggested the man was play-acting.

The comments on the internet were "tearing me to pieces," Zeng said. Net users only saw "a very small part of the whole incident," he said.

Zeng called for the video and audio recordings, including those in the hostel and in the police vehicle, to be released, where the polices improper behavior took place.

"I doubt if they would release those recordings,"Zeng said.

【注釋】

1 cemetery：墓地；公墓；墳場；

2 graveyard：墓地；墳場；

3 hostel：（通常指當地政府或慈善團體開辦的）廉價招待所，臨時收容所；

A hostel is a large house where people can stay cheaply for a short period of time. Hostels are usually owned by local government authorities or charities.

Beijing demands an apology over 『brutal abuse』 of three Chinese tourists by police in Stockholm

A disagreement between Chinese tourists and a hostel in Stockholm over check-in time has turned into a diplomatic spat between China and Sweden, after Beijing criticised Sweden for violating the human rights of Chinese citizens.

China has demanded an apology from Sweden and issued a safety alert for its tourists in the country after it said that three tourists had been 「brutally abused」 by Swedish police on 2 September.

The Zengs, a family of three, had arrived at a hostel in Stockholm around midnight, hours before their booking. They were allowed to wait in the lobby until the staff ordered them to leave and police forcibly ejected them.

Bizarre video footage posted online shows police carrying the group outside, while the son yells in English: 「This is killing. This is killing.」 Another clip shows the three lying on the ground crying loudly while the mother wails in Chinese:「Save me.」

The Chinese embassy in Sweden said on Saturday that China』s ministry of foreign affairsand the embassy had 「made solemn representations」 to the Swedish government 「stressing that what the police had done severely endangered the life and violated the basic human rights of the Chinese citizens.」

The incident comes as ties between China and Sweden have come under pressure. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who Beijing considers a violent separatist, visited Sweden last week, and China continues to hold Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen and book publisher, in custody.

News of the altercation has attracted widespread attention in China where the search term「Chinese tourists mistreated by Swedish police」 has received more than 130m views and 85,000 posts on the microblog Weibo. Discussion of the incident has turned into a debate about the behaviour of Chinese tourists at home and abroad.

「This is shameful. The image of China has been disgraced in the hands of these people,」one Weibo user wrote.

「The Dalai Lama visits Sweden and the foreign ministry uses this incident as a pretext to make a fuss. That』s more embarrassing than the performance of this family,」 another wrote.

「These people feel the world should move around them, if not, then they lie down on ground and scream for help,」 one commentator wrote in an essay posted on WeChat.

Zeng told the Global Times he had asked the hostel to let his parents, who are elderly with health problems, stay until their room was available. The staff refused and called police to remove them.

「I broke down and lost my mind,」 Zeng said. 「I was not able to think whether it was appropriate or not. I just wanted to denounce the police and seek help from pedestrians.」

A manager at the hostel told Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, the family had arrived the day before their booking and refused to leave. The hostel said staff called police sometime after midnight, when the tourists began to make verbal threats.

「We only know that we have done everything we could do for this guest, but at the same time we cannot accept that our staff are exposed to threats and that other guests will suffer from a threatening situation,」 the hostel manager said, according to Aftonbladet.

【注釋】

1 spat：（可數名詞）小爭吵；口角；爭執；

2 eject：驅逐；把····逐出；

If you eject someone from a place, you force them to leave.

3 wail：哀訴；哀號著說；

If you wail sth, you say it in a loud, high-pitched voice that shows that you are unhappy or in pain；

4 altercation：（可數名詞）爭吵；爭論；

An altercation is a noisy argument or disagreement.

5 fuss：引起騷動；大吵大鬧；大發牢騷；

If you make a fuss or kick up a fuss about sth, you become angry or excited about it and complain；

6 denounce：

譴責；痛斥；

告發；檢舉；