Woman’s shocking ‘Jackie Chan’ comment to Chinese tradie installing solar panels on a neighbour’s house at Sylvania

A woman has been ordered to pay $6,000 after calling Chinese tradie ‘Jackie Chan’ and spraying him with a hose while he was installing solar panels.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled on Thursday that Nina Bridge Xining “racially defamed” Duan during the January altercation.

Mr Duan was installing panels at a neighboring site in Sylvania, in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, when Ms Bridge told him to put down his tools as it was almost 5pm.

The tribunal heard Duan told Ms Bridge he only needed two more minutes to put the tiles back on the roof and finish his work.

Moments later, Mrs. Bridge returned with her hose and sprayed him, causing the tradie on the roof to lose her balance.

Mr Duan asked her to ‘stop attacking him’, warning she would drop him from the roof.

He tried to replace several roof tiles and protect the building from the water.

Ms Bridge then sprayed Mr Duan in the face again, temporarily blinding him as he continued to ask her to stop.

His colleague, Mr Liu, told the tribunal he saw Mr Duan slip and fall on the roof, and begged Ms Bridge to stop spraying.

‘I don’t care. Aren’t you Jackie Chan jumping off the roof?’ Mrs. Bridge asked him.

After the incident, Mr Duan told Ms Bridge he would call the police and charge her.

The tribunal then heard Ms Bridge say the traditional words to the effect of ‘I don’t understand your English’ and make noises that mimicked his accent.

Mr Duan said he also saw the woman spraying water from her hose at his colleague, Mr Liu, as he worked on an open electricity meter box.

Ms Bridge told the court she repeatedly asked Mr Duan to “pack up and go home” and was shocked by his “screaming”.

She stated that she unfortunately made a comment comparing Mr. Duan to the Chinese actor.

“His actions were quite theatrical at one point, he was shouting at me, making rapid gestures and I did make a comment about Jackie Chan,” she told the tribunal.

‘I’m very sorry I said this. I understand that this gentleman was deeply offended by this, for which I sincerely apologize.

A court heard the resident sprayed him with water from a garden hose, almost causing Mr Duan to fall off the roof

‘It was a mistake that I deeply regret and will not repeat. I am truly, deeply sorry.”

She said Mr. Duan “screamed” in another language and made her worried.

However, the tribunal found her story not credible and rejected the claim that Duan had shouted at her in the run-up to the injection.

Mr Duan initially took the incident to NCAT and asked for compensation for two days’ work and a public apology.

A complaint to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board – filed with the tribunal – said Duan felt “humiliated” and “mocked” by the incident.

“At the time of the attack, I was panicking and scared because I feared she was trying to kill me by dropping me from the roof,” he said in the complaint.

‘When I went home I couldn’t fall asleep. When I did that, I had nightmares of falling off the roof. I couldn’t breathe or think properly because of her attack.’

Tribunal members Larissa Andelman and Steven Davison agreed with Duan and found the incident amounted to racial vilification.

They stated that Ms. Bridge acted out of frustration after a long day at work, but noted that she would have clearly seen Mr. Duan when he slipped, despite her earlier denial.

“She did it because she was angry and frustrated after a long, noisy day of building her neighbor’s house,” they found in their decision.

“We are satisfied that Ms Bridge had a clear view of Mr Duan on the roof and saw him slip and fall on the roof after she sprayed him.”

The tribunal ordered Ms Bridge to pay Mr Duan $6,000 within 28 days in compensation for ‘loss and damage’.