A French travel content creator who shared a video of himself crashing a Vietnamese wedding has drawn disapproval from internet users.
In his now-deleted TikTok video titled “How I joined a Vietnamese Wedding without being invited,” Alwin GC (@alwingc) makes sure to specify that he was not invited to the wedding but asks for entrance as he is “French” and a “YouTuber.” Upon his entry, Alwin explains how uncomfortable he was as “the only white guy” and “the only foreigner.”
“I come in and then everyone was looking at me […] like I felt so uncomfortable,” he narrates.
Standing between the guests and the couple, Alwin positions himself by the main stage to get a close shot of the bride and groom. Meanwhile, Alwin continues to express his discomfort at the wedding, stating that he “didn’t really know what to do” and “no one seemed to invite me in their table.”
Eventually, Alwin decides to ask to join a guest table through Google Translate. After his request is accepted, he highlights how he “ate so much food[,] fried food […] we tried so many different things and then obviously we drank together.”
Although Alwin’s original video has been deleted from his page — on which he has over 500,000 followers and 9.6 million likes — people have reacted to reposts shared on TikTok.
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On TikTok, user @queerlamp stitched his video and wrote: “I bet you would not do this at a white american wedding if you came to the US, you’re a french man who felt entitled enough to barge into a vietnamese wedding, you ate their food that they bought for their INVITED guests. Ofc no one invited you to their table, YOU’RE A STRANGE MAN WHO INVITED HIMSELF TO A WEDDING.”
The sentiments are echoed by TikTok user @srirachalesbian, who calls out the “entitlement of white men in Southeast Asia.” Implying the history of French colonization in Vietnam, @srirachalesbian states: “The way you people swear you’re not like your ancestors (your literal grandparents) and then do sh*t like this.”
The negative response to Alwin’s video also spread to Reddit, where the video was uploaded to the subreddit r/VietNam and r/ActLikeYouBelong.
“He’s not even acting like he belongs,” one Reddit user commented. “He just bumbling about and mooching off politeness.”
In response, another commenter wrote, “Even worse, he’s taking advantage of cultural differences in politeness. I think they wouldn’t have felt like they could ask him to leave. Imagine going to a wedding of a loved one, and looking forward to catch up with your relatives – and then you have this asshole using google translate to comment on each mouthful he takes. Ugh.”
In another response to the Reddit post, a user offers a simple solution: “‘I wasn’t invited, I didn’t really know what to do’ Leave you f*cking assh*le.”
Featured Image via @alwingc
