Xu Zheng's dress controversy when meeting Thai PM

"Lost in Thailand" director Xu Zheng faced harsh criticism on several social media when he recently met with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra while wearing casual attire.

Xu was invited to the meeting last week after his low-budget blockbuster "Lost in Thailand" became the highest grossing Chinese film ever with more than US$200 million at the Chinese box-office to date. The movie has even attracted tens of thousands of Chinese tourists to Thailand.

In the photos, Xu was seen wearing casual pants and a white shirt with both sleeves rolled up and the top buttons undone. Standing next to him was a formally dressed elegant-looking Yingluck Shinawatra.

"Even if you are a famous director, when you meet with the head of a country, especially when it's the female Thai Prime Minister, will you please learn to be a gentleman and show some respect by tidying up?" Xu Jingbo, who heads Asian News Agency in Japan, wrote in critique of Xu Zheng on China's popular micro-blogging site Weibo.

"Xu Zheng, you made 1.2 billion yuan box office by making 'Lost in Thailand,' but you failed miserably when it came to basic social etiquette. I wonder what Yingluck Shinawatra will think of Chinese men now?" he added.

This Weibo post has received more than 15,000 comments and over 13,000 re-tweets thus far, mostly from fans coming to Xu's defense.

"Director Xu was apparently wearing simple and comfortable clothes," one fan wrote, "There was nothing wrong with him just being himself."

Xu Jingbo didn't stop, but continued his online crusade, "When Mo Yan went to collect his Nobel Prize, he wore a black tailcoat. When Jackie Chan attended the CPPCC session in Beijing, he wore traditional Chinese costume. Xu was just not representing himself. On such a formal occasion, he was representing all Chinese artists and Chinese men," he wrote.

"China is an old and civilized country, it's necessary to pay attention to details and etiquette. What is the soft power we want? This is it! It's not about how good your GDP is," he said, "The Cultural Revolution destroyed China's social ethic and moral, then the Opening and Reform-era let people slip into new money-making movements. Our parents, we and our children have never received any education on etiquette in Chinese schools because they literally grow up in exams, not in education.

"Why do some foreigners often instruct Chinese tourists not to spit, not to speak loudly, and not dump rubbish on the street nowadays? If Chinese people want the world to respect them, you must first change yourself," he wrote.

"Xu and his entourage didn't even think about these issues, didn't know how to meet another country's top leader while showing respect and not losing his own dignity and status. Or he and his people just forget to think," he added.

Xu Zheng has not yet responded to his critics.