Chinese view of S-E Asia further sours after summer blockbusters

Two films strengthen impression that scams and other crimes are rampant in region, potentially hurting travel

- Aw Cheng Wei

In this summer's blockbuster hit No More Bets, the lead character, played by one of China's top celebrities Lay Zhang, ends up being forced to work for a crime syndicate in a fictitious South-east Asian country after accepting a fake job offer in Singapore.

In suspense-thriller Lost In The Stars, a woman who travels with her husband to (again) an imagined country in South-east Asia ends up - spoiler alert getting killed.

Netizens and moviegoers in China say the two movies have hardened their impression of Southeast Asia as a region of rampant scams and other crimes, after months of reports of Chinese visitors getting killed or going missing, adding that they would avoid travelling there.

For the first seven months of 2023, Malaysia replaced China as Thailand's top source of tourists the first time since 2012- according to local media reports.

State media Global Times reported on Aug 17 that Chinese tourists have also been spurning Myanmar due to concerns over telco scams, citing results of a poll in which nearly 96 per cent of 9,298 Chinese netizens said they would not consider going there due to safety concerns.

According to statistics on telco scams in China, which were shown at the end of No More Bets, the Public Security Bureau has cracked 1.156 million cases, arrested 1.553 million suspects, frozen payment and funds amounting to more than 916.5 million yuan (S$173 million), dissuaded 93.85 million from being cheated, and recovered losses of more than 286.1 billion yuan as at end-2022.

On Sunday, the Global Times reported that Lost In The Stars is this summer's top-grossing film, followed by No More Bets. In Singapore, Lost In The Stars is currently showing in cinemas while No More Bets will open on Sept 14.