Five Public Figures Slapping (other than Amos Yee)

Recalcitrant Singapore teen Amos Yee was slapped by a man on his way to court yesterday on 30 April. The man subsequently fled after taunting Yee, saying: “Sue me, come and sue me”. A 49-year-old man has since been arrested by the police in connection with the case. Violence is never the answer to anything. What if the man had poured acid on Amos Yee or whacked him with a baseball bat?

Here’s tha attack video:

“Ouch”.

Shock Factor: 9/10

Anyway, I got curious about which other public figures have gotten slapped (or nearly slapped) before Amos Yee (aren’t you curious too?). Did some searches and here is a quick list of five:

1. Li Na

Before Li Na became the global tennis star that she is now, she was slapped in public by a Chinese sports official when she was 19. The incidence happened in 2001 during the Chinese National Sports’ Meeting. Li Na was slapped by a male official during the awarding of a bronze medal to teach her a lesson for a disobedience regarding arrangement in the mixed-double team grouping:

Who would have see this coming during an award ceremony?

Shock Factor: 10/10

2. Gauhar Khan 

Indian television presenter, Gauhar Khan was slapped by a male audience member because he thought her dress was too revealing. Gauhar Khan was left visibly traumatised after the attack while she filmed the grand finale of singing competition Raw Star:

The culprit, Akil Malik, 24, took offence to her cutaway dress and ran up to the stage to hit her across the face and threaten her.

“Being a Muslim woman, she should not have worn such a short dress,” the Mumbai police quoted him as saying afterwards.

Shock Factor: 7/10

3. Gordon Ramsay

Hot-tempered presenter-chef Gordon Ramsay has got to be on this list. Often seen abusing others on reality cooking shows like Kitchen Nightmare and Hell’s Kitchen, there is bound to be an instance when someone claws back. Here’s a video where he nearly got slapped from an episode of Hell’s Kitchen:

If you want to slap Gordon Ramsay, you got to be quicker than that!

Shock Factor: 4/10

4. Hong Rong

Closer to home in Singapore in 2008, hot-tempered television host, Quan Yi Feng, was allegedly seen slapping her then husband, Hong Rong, thrice on his face after he tried to pacify her in a quarrel with another driver over a traffic dispute.

She denied slapping her ex-husband, but was involved in a scuttle with a taxi driver in 2010 and pled guilty to one charge of mischief in 2011. 

Shock Factor: 5/10

5. S. Dhanabalan

Following is the extract from page 150 of Ross Worthington’s book, “Governance in Singapore”(Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc, Dec 2002):

This rumour has been floating around for some time, but it came to prominence again in 2005 when then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong made mention of it to quell the gossip. 

“I must be suffering from amnesia,” Goh said. “I just cannot remember this incident.”

Shock Factor: 0/10 (because it never happened)