People watch as giant panda Yuan Yuan enjoys a birthday meal at Taipei Zoo in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, Aug. 30, 2023. Taipei Zoo on Wednesday celebrated the 19th birthday of Yuan Yuan, the female giant panda gifted by the Chinese mainland to Taiwan.(Photo: Xinhua)

A film crew has drawn public fury with their uncivilized behavior while shooting at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. The film crew has been asked to stop shooting immediately and leave the base after multiple rounds of failed attempts to persuade them to change their behavior, the research base said on Thursday.

A netizen revealed on Wednesday on social media platforms that the film crew had been making loud noises and refused to quiet down after being requested to do so by security guards on several occasions.

The video taken by the netizen shows a group of people, including small children around 5 or 6 years old, gathering in front of a wooden fence, with some holding cameras. A voice from off-screen can be heard saying, "Get ready, the pandas are coming, clap your hands!"

As the giant panda approaches the fence, the crowd being filmed starts screaming, cheering and applauding, which appears to  scare the panda away.

Despite the security guard asking them to lower their voices, the film crew repeats such actions several times whenever the pandas approached the fence.

Tourists and netizens reacted angrily toward their uncivilized behavior, noting that "the pandas prefer tranquility, and their actions could lead an incorrect trend for tourists visiting the base."

In response to the matter, the research base said on Thursday that the incident occurred on Wednesday morning, and they had halted all filming activities by the crew and asked them to reflect on their actions.

According to the base, the filming was part of a public welfare project, and the production team had made prior arrangements. The staff of the base had reminded the production team not to make loud noises and to refrain from using flashlights when shooting. However, the production team turned a deaf ear to the warnings.

After multiple unsuccessful attempts by the on-site security to persuade them, the crew were immediately asked to leave the base.

Global Times