Everyone knows that Premier Zhou has a gentle personality and is kind to others. He rarely loses his temper with others, especially to grassroots staff, which makes people feel like they are in spring.
However, Premier Zhou once got angry with a waitress and made the waitress cry for a long time. What's going on?
That was in the 1950s, when the leader of Vietnamese visited China, and was received by Premier Zhou.
After talking about the day's work, a dinner party was held as usual. Premier Zhou accompanied the Long March to attend the dinner. As a result, something very unpleasant happened at this dinner.
After three rounds of wine, a waitress came up with a plate with a few wet towels on it to wipe everyone's hands.
The waitress first came to Premier Zhou’s side and wanted Premier Zhou to take a towel first, but Premier Zhou did not take it, but signaled her with his eyes and gave it to Comrade Changzheng next to him first.
Premier Zhou told everyone a reception rule very early. When there are foreign guests, the things should be given to the foreign guests first. If there are no foreign guests, the principle of first girl and then man is based on the principle of first girl. If all men are men, the order will be based on the position.
So, at this banquet, the waiter should give the towel to the Vietnamese leader Long March first, rather than to Premier Zhou first.
However, the waitress may not understand what Premier Zhou meant and continued to hold the plate and asked Premier Zhou to take the towel first.
Premier Zhou frowned when she saw that she was indifferent, and winked her again, asking her to give it to Comrade Changzheng first.
This waitress is also a little stupid. After looking around, she still handed the plate to Premier Zhou.
Now, Premier Zhou became angry and stared at her with his eyes and scolded: "It's outrageous!"
Although this waitress had no eyesight, she still had hearing. When she heard the Prime Minister scolding her, tears suddenly came out and she left with tears.
This waitress felt very wronged and kindly went to give Premier Zhou a towel. Premier Zhou not only didn't appreciate it, but also got angry at her. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, and she cried more and more violently.
The person in charge of this banquet rushed over and asked what happened. The waitress told the story just now. The person in charge understood as soon as he heard it and said, "Didn't I tell you a long time ago? When there are foreign guests, you should give it to the foreign guests first. You should give it to the Prime Minister first. How can the Prime Minister not be angry?"
The waitress was a little confused and said, "I didn't see any foreign guests? Didn't you say that? There are no foreign guests or foreign guests. When I was a lady, I gave it to you in the order of position. Here I have only been in the prime minister's position for a few weeks. Shouldn't I give it to him first? "
It turns out that this waitress has just arrived and has received foreign guests several times before. They are all Westerners or Africans. You can tell at a glance that they are foreign guests. This waitress thought that foreign guests are all like this. Vietnamese look very similar to southern Chinese people. If you don't introduce them, you really can't tell whether they are foreign guests.
Look at the photo above. It is the Vietnamese leader who came to the Long March this time. It is no different from the southerners in China. It is no wonder that this waitress can't tell it. The person in charge of
understands what's going on. She can't blame her for not explaining who the customer was this time, and this mess happened.
In fact, the reason why Premier Zhou lost his temper at this waitress was not entirely because she violated the reception regulations. Another important reason was that Premier Zhou was deliberately doing it for Long March to see it.
At that time, Vietnamese often came to China to ask for assistance, and even some things they could produce themselves were asked to give them free assistance. The Chinese were still living with their belts, but they still had to give them assistance, which had aroused public outrage.
This time, the Long March visit to China made some excessive aid requests, which made Premier Zhou very unhappy. However, out of internationalism, it was difficult to refuse directly. Just because of this banquet accident, he criticized the waitress for "outrageous" on the surface, but in fact he was also criticizing the Vietnamese for "outrageous"!
Afterwards, Premier Zhou also found the waitress and apologized to her in person, saying that she was in a bad mood and criticized you. Now she apologized to you. Don’t feel psychologically stressed, just pay attention to working hard in the future.
(Reference: "Getting to Zhou Enlai" "Zhou Enlai under the Prism")
