This paper explores the phenomenon of ‘public ritual apology’. It usually occurs in contexts when someone apologizes for acts that are deemed as grave and in the case of which apology is seemingly dysfunctional in the sense that it cannot usually grant forgiveness. Public ritual apology is a regretfully neglected area, in spite of the fact that such apologies are not only frequent but also generate significant public attention in media – thus, this paper fills an important knowledge gap. It focuses on Chinese public ritual apologies, which are noteworthy to explore as Chinese is stereotypically referred to as a culture which disprefers apologising behaviour. Its methodology is predominantly interactional and metapragmatic, and it combines qualitative research with quantitative elements.