“To my shock, he lunged toward me, still screaming, as if he was going to hit me with the sign. He then shouted, in broken English, “We hate you! Get out of here! Get out of Taiwan, American!”

Informed media watchers in Singapore couldn’t help but chuckle when they came across this recent headline: “Straits Times keeps No 1 spot, drawing 1.35m readers.”

“”If this happens during 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, we’re gonna lose face.”