The parents of a 15-year-old boy from China who defaced an Ancient Egyptian temple have apologized for the boy’s behavior.
According to CNN, the boy, who was visiting the 3,500-year-old Luxor Temple from Nanjing, carved “Ding Jinhao was here” into the wall. On May 24, another Chinese traveler took a photo of it, sharing it on the Chinese micro-blogging site weibo. The tourist who took the photo wrote that he was embarrassed to see the Chinese graffiti and he apologized to his Egyptian tour guide. “We want to wipe off the marking with a towel. But we can't use water since it is a 3,500 relic,” the tourist wrote.
After a day of being viciously attacked online, the boy’s parents told issued their own apology for his behavior. “We want to apologise to the Egyptian people and to people who have paid attention to this case across China,” Ding’s mother told the Modern Express Saturday, reports the BBC.
Ding’s mother said that they had visited the temple when he was younger and has already realized the damage he did.
“This is too much pressure for him to take,” his father told the paper about the online bullying he has dealt with.
The BBC notes that one paper reported that Ding’s school website was hacked shortly after the photo of the graffiti went viral in China. The original post garnered over 18,000 comments.
Egyptian officials have reportedly said that they can try to remove the damage, but can’t erase it fully. However, this incident comes just after vice-premier Wang Yang asked that Chinese tourists behave better to limit damage to the country’s image on the international stage. Chinese tourists have now passed American and German tourists as the biggest spenders around the world.