the art of uncivilization

Okay. I think it's about time I get over the horrifying incident and return to reality. This is what happened in Shanghai some time last month.

If any of you have not realized by now. I'm freelancing in event management working on project basis for my ex-company in Singapore. Recently, I took on a 12 cities roadshow for a multi-national company specializing in IT. Shanghai was the fourth stop.

My colleagues and I arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday morning in preparation for the event. The event was held at a 5-star hotel in Pudong. Everything went on smoothly on pre-set up day and actual event day. Just as we thought that the event is going to end flawlessly, something shocking happened.

The attendees were supposed to collect 5 ticket stubs in exchange for a gift at the end of the event. By 3ish, a massive crowd started to build up in front of the registration. Everyone wanted to redeem their gift and leave early. The situation started to get chaotic.

"Elektra! Get out of the registration counter right now!" Mutiara shouted through the walkie-talkie. Elektra left the registration counter in hurry and headed towards the stage where lucky draw was going to take place.

"Follow that girl! Follow that girl!" the crowd screamed to each other. They followed Elektra exactly how the rats followed Peter Piper in the fairy tale.

"Elektra! Now, stay at the stage and don't come to the redemption counter!" Mutiara instructed through the walkies.

Elektra stayed at the stage until lucky draw begins. I quickly ran towards the stage to handle lucky draw. The crowd rushed towards the redemption counter right after the lucky winner for the last prize was announced.

"Dui bu qi, rang wo guo yi xia." (it means "Excuse me. Please let me get through" in Mandarin). I managed to squeeze my way through and get behind the counter to help in distributing the gifts.

They were supposed to form two queue in front of the redemption counter. We had at least 10 crew members out there trying to control the crowd. People started pushing around and soon, they have gone out of control and hundreds of people pushing towards the redemption counter as though we were giving out gold bars!!

"Get out of the counter now, girls! and I mean NOW!" Mutiara shouted. Bunnie and I were still collecting ticket stubs and giving away gifts while Boobie stared in space, stunned with what she saw, only collects ticket stubs without giving out the gifts. Those standing in front of the counter kept screaming at us. "Wei! Wo de li pin ne? wo de li pin ne?" (it means "Hey! Where's my gift?" in Mandarin) and believe me, they weren't polite at all.

The counter was pushed towards us until Boobie, Bunnie and I were pinned against the pillar by the counter. "Ouchhhhhhhhhhhhhh" I cried out loud. We were rescued from the counter immediately by Elektra, Ah Loh and Mutiara.

In the midst of the chaos, the security guards came flocking into the redemption area and tried to control the crowd. The Hotel's PR manager, a local Chinese national, came and screamed at the crowd. "Ni men dou feng le ba!" (it means "You have all gone mad!" in Mandarin). None of them managed to ease the crowd.

We had no choice but to halt gift redemption. The hotel security has requested us to make an announcement informing the attendees that gift redemption has been cancelled. Well, as I have spent 4 years previously in Beijing, that would means my Mandarin is the best among us. Therefore, I had to make the announcement.

We then went hiding in our secretariat room. Mutiara and Bunnie went on to tear down our stuff and pack up. Little to their knowledge, some attendees who refused to leave the hotel started stalking them. The hotel security had to escort them back to our secretariat.

The Hotel Manager came shortly, wanting to know how we planned to solve the problem. The crowd still loitered in the hotel and refused to leave. We were advised to apologize and distribute the gifts to them. Here comes the best part, a public apology. Guess who has to make the apology? It's me... again!

There they were. About 70 of them, all seated in the room waiting for us with such hostile look on their face. I walked behind the security guards towards the front of the room. As I turned around, I realized that I was the only one standing in front of the room. The rest of my colleagues has stopped at the door. I had 70 pairs of angry eyes staring at me. But there was no time for fear.

As I was apologizing to them, complete with a sincere voice and countless bowing, I noticed a guy sitting on the second row recording me with his mobile phone. I was horrified and paused for awhile. "Excuse me, Sir. Are you recording me?" He put his phone down calmly and looked away. Damn it! I prayed and prayed so hard that he will not post the video up on Youtube. Arghhhhh!!!

We gave them their gifts on their way out. I was standing at the door apologizing personally to each and everyone of them. It was really some kind of experience 'cuz I've never ever said 'dui bu qi' ("Sorry" in Mandarin) continuously for so many times in my life. You've guessed it. It's totally, absolutely, extremely ...
E-M-B-A-R-A-S-S-I-N-G!

Phew. Finally, it was over. But we were all too traumatized after. This is definitely a not-so-pleasant memory which has scarred my almost perfect life. I'm just so glad it's all over now.

Note: Names have been changed to protect the innocent!