Chinese restaurant receives hate calls over viral videos of worker scooping spilled sauce from floor

January 5, 2022

A Chinese restaurant in Canada received hate calls after a series of videos of an employee putting sauce that spilled on the ground into a bucket he later took inside the restaurant was shared on social media.

Videos of Zebin Lin were first shared on Snapchat by Elisha Pommainville, who was driving by Hong Shing Chinese Restaurant in downtown Toronto when she saw the employee scooping up the spilled sauce from the ground.

But Lin told Global News in Cantonese there’s another side to the story. He slipped while grabbing six buckets of sauce from a supply truck. One of the buckets ended up spilling. Lin said he wanted to avoid the oncoming vehicles on the road, so he cleaned up the mess as fast as possible. One empty bucket was left outside as five others were carried inside.

“When he came in, I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, all these buckets have to go,’” Hong Shing owner Colin Li told Global News, adding that quality control was the restaurant’s top priority.

The videos also went viral on an Instagram account with around 2 million followers and have since been circulating on several YouTube pages. But Pommainville said she had no intention of ruining the restaurant; she just wanted to make people aware of what she witnessed. She encourages the community to support the business, but does not regret sharing the videos.

The restaurant has received support from the community since the videos were first posted online, but hate calls and online abuse began coming in.

“A lot of hate calls coming to the restaurant saying about how unsanitary we are, plus a lot of racist comments leading up to that,” Li told the TV network. “I have to keep fighting this narrative for over two decades now, saying how Chinese restaurants are unsanitary and dirty.”

“We work really hard to make sure that no one really feels like that,” continued Li. “From me building my social media to show people I’m very transparent in my kitchen. I show on social media literally every angle of my kitchen, so people can see what’s coming out and what’s coming into the restaurant. So that’s why this incident is really hurtful.”

Featured Image via Global News

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