Face slap at bubble tea cafe in Adelaide's Chinatown in 2021 becomes viral video, raising wider issues
The Adelaide Chinatown slap that went viral as a video image and became a violence against women and wage exploitation issue.
A young waitress at the bubble tea café in Adelaide city’s Chinatown being slapped in the face in 2021 was viewed by millions as a television and viral social media video – with unexpected sequels.
The video starts with a 20-year-old female staff member arguing with the cafe owner Translations by viewers say the woman claims she was fired from her job after only a handful of shifts and was demanding to be paid for them. He allegedly replies that he won’t pay her because she was a trainee. When the argument escalates into a shouting match, a second man approaches her and then slaps her forcibly in the face. Another female employee who intervenes is also shoved by the same man. The first staff member retaliates by kicking out at the slapper before he kicks her to the ground.
It was later revealed in the Adelaide Magistrates Court that the man had slapped the waitress because of a something completely unrelated to the wages argument. He believed the waitress had been rude to him and his wife and he mistakenly believed she was complaining to her manager about him.
The publicity around the video raised a wider issue with a march through Chinatown to protest the exploitation of workers in the hospitality industry The director of the bubble tea café –called Funtea – admitted in a video interview that the argument between the manager and waitress was over her complaints about her $10 an hour wages ((when the minimum legal rate at a restaurant was $25). The Working Women’s Centre SA took on representing the Funtea female staff over the wages issue.
The Funtea premises were broken into and vandalised after the incident. Protesters holding placards urging an end to violence against women and wage exploitation gathered outside the Adelaide Magistrates Court in Victoria Square, Adelaide city, court ahead of the sentencing of the man charged with the slap. Lei "Gavin" Guo, 39, pleaded guilty to hitting the woman. The court heard Guo was a highly respected member of the Chinese community whose wife and children had been victimised due to the publicity his crime received.
Magistrate John Fahey said the community expected a conviction but handed down a two-and-a-half-year good behaviour bond rather than jail time. "I am satisfied you are a man of excellent character and satisfied you are unlikely to offend again," Fahey said. "I believe you are a good man but sometimes good people do bad things."