4 ms·

While I haven't the same proficiency, I had the same "local celebrity" experience when visiting Beijing. While it is fun at first seeing people double take and

by edent 2y ago

While I haven't the same proficiency, I had the same "local celebrity" experience when visiting Beijing. While it is fun at first seeing people double take and then ask to take a photo with you - it gets old fast! Mind you, I'll never tire of (partially) understanding what people say about me when they think I don't understand. One thing not mentioned is that it is often a good idea to have some formal testing. Friends and tutors may overlook your mistakes. A dispassionate exam board likely won't.

iforgotpassword 2y ago
Are you not white or otherwise have unusual features? I'm a random white dude and I've been to Beijing and Shanghai many times over the past 15 years, and while I was asked for a photo a few times at parks or touristy places, it was far from feeling like a celeb or anything. And it has gotten less and less over the past years, but maybe that's because I'm getting older and more boring. :)
- hangonhn 2y ago
  You need to leave Beijing and especially Shanghai and head farther inland to regain your celebrity status! I (ethnic Chinese) went to China with two friends from Texas in the early 2010s. One of them has long blonde hair. She was never stopped in Shanghai, a couple of times in Beijing, but in Chengdu, they were just so amazed by her and her husband (but mostly her and her long blonde hair). People wanted to take pictures with my friends. Maybe things have changed a lot since then but worth a try! Chengdu is definitely worth visiting and I'm sure there are many very interesting more inland cities in China to visit (and maybe be a celebrity for a moment).
  - iforgotpassword 2y ago
    Yes, going to smaller cities has always been on my list but never worked out. I did Tianjin and Qingdao last and this year, but they are still too big it seems. Stayed three days both times and there was nothing more than a few stares.
  - Baeocystin 2y ago
    I (white, blonde and green-eyed at the time) spent a lot of my childhood in SE Asia and southern China in the late 70s/early 80s. Once we got to the smaller, interior towns, we had to be really careful with our movement, as we could attract dangerously large crowds just by going to the morning market or the like. The vast majority of people were just curious, and I have a lot of happy memories of smiles and connections, but a few of coming close to getting killed, too. Still, risk is everywhere, and the positives win out. I loved learning what I could, and I hope meeting us was a net joy for the folks we interacted with, too.
    - fragmede 2y ago
      You were going to get killed for being white in the wrong place?
      - Baeocystin 2y ago
        Probably less to do with being white specifically than simply being a convenient Other, but yes. Most people are great. Some are awful, a few evil. When you stand out, you'll attract the attention of everyone, including the latter, and you'd be wise not to forget that, in all its aspects. The whole reason we were able to survive is that locals looked after us, too, and that's worth emphasizing.
      - archsurface 2y ago
        This is normal in many areas of the world.
    - wavemode 2y ago
      > green-eyed at the time What happened to your eyes?
      - Baeocystin 2y ago
        They turned hazel when I hit puberty. Hair got darker, too. Pretty common in white folks, FWIW.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    > You need to leave Beijing and especially Shanghai and head farther inland to regain your celebrity status! Just going to the suburbs of Shanghai will do it.
- edent 2y ago
  I am white, but have very long hair and a beard. It was the touristy parts of Beijing where I got the most attention. Usually from tourists from more rural parts of China, or museums with lots of bussed in schoolkids.
anal_reactor 2y ago
I am a polyglot but I have slight hearing impairment, which means that unless someone is directly talking to me, I won't understand anything. Sucks.
pragmomm 2y ago
[flagged]
- curiousgal 2y ago
  I am curious, do you actually believe these things?
  - pc86 2y ago
    Not the GP but this question has me wondering what you mean, precisely. 75% of the comment is just things that happened, so there's nothing to "believe" there. For the rest it's basically two statements: 1. Ultra-nationalism is on the rise in China 2. Going to China as an outsider is ill-advised OK so #1 may or may not be true but either way is an objective thing, it's either rising or it's not. So again, not really anything to be "believed," although you could certainly think it's moving one direction and just be wrong about it. So the charitable reading of the only remaining statement is essentially "you probably shouldn't go to China if you're a foreigner" which yeah is an opinion, and not one I'd take particularly seriously, but it's also not outlandish that someone would believe that. There are plenty of places in the world to visit and if there's a place with a higher chance the locals don't actually want me there, I'll go elsewhere. Most of the time when I see questions like this asking if someone "actually" believes something, the implied second part of the question is either "or are you a troll" or "because no rational person could possibly believe that," neither of which seem appropriate in this instance.
- giraffe_lady 2y ago
  [flagged]
- jajko 2y ago
  To keep things polite - that's a bit over the top to call it 'ultra-nationalism' and then in nation of 1.5 billion to point out... 2 attacks altogether for last few months? That's like what, a weak school week in US in comparison? If its there, and this is first time hearing about it for me and seemingly for others, please provide some serious proofs for such serious accusations.
Terr_ 2y ago
> I had the same "local celebrity" experience when visiting Beijing. My own dimly-remembered anecdote involves passing through mainland China back in the 90s in tow of my parents, as an elementary-schooler with very blond hair. (Two qualities that are no longer true.) Even in the downtown areas of Beijing it drew attention, but if you went further out to more-rural zones... Well, imagine small crowds coming up to gawk and indicating they'd like to touch your hair to confirm it's real and/or for good luck. It wasn't just a lack of in-person visitors, but also that the standard of living there 30 years ago there was a much lower, and even the locally-affluent were unlikely to get much media from outside the country.
jmyeet 2y ago
So ~20 years ago I went to Kuala Lumpur. For those not knowing where or what that is, it's the capital city of Malaysia with a population of ~1.8 million people. It once held the title for the world's tallent building (ie the Petronas Towers). So this is a modern city not that far from Singapore. I happened to catch a train to one of the shopping centers while I was there so this was the mass transit system in a relatively modern city. This boy of 7 or so kept gawking at me. He was with his father. I looked up at him, curious, and his father said in passable English that his son has never seen a white person before. That was quite a surreal experience for me, particularly given the environment. I can't imagine what it must be like in rural China with few Western visitors.
- grecy 2y ago
  > his son has never seen a white person before I drove a 4x4 right around Africa from mid 2016 to mid 2019. It was quite common in West Africa to drive into a village where the kids would run away terrified and the adults would explain the kids had never seen a white person before, and they thought I was a ghost. I drove across an international border where the border guard had been working for 3 years and had never seen a foreigner. It's fun getting off the map.
  - unethical_ban 2y ago
    Hey, the jeep guy! There was a guy who rode a motorcycle from San Francisco to Barrow AL about 2014. His and your blogging were the source of some fun what-if dreams of mine back then.

by edent 2y ago

iforgotpassword 2y ago

Are you not white or otherwise have unusual features? I'm a random white dude and I've been to Beijing and Shanghai many times over the past 15 years, and while I was asked for a photo a few times at parks or touristy places, it was far from feeling like a celeb or anything. And it has gotten less and less over the past years, but maybe that's because I'm getting older and more boring. :)

hangonhn 2y ago
You need to leave Beijing and especially Shanghai and head farther inland to regain your celebrity status! I (ethnic Chinese) went to China with two friends from Texas in the early 2010s. One of them has long blonde hair. She was never stopped in Shanghai, a couple of times in Beijing, but in Chengdu, they were just so amazed by her and her husband (but mostly her and her long blonde hair). People wanted to take pictures with my friends. Maybe things have changed a lot since then but worth a try! Chengdu is definitely worth visiting and I'm sure there are many very interesting more inland cities in China to visit (and maybe be a celebrity for a moment).
- iforgotpassword 2y ago
  Yes, going to smaller cities has always been on my list but never worked out. I did Tianjin and Qingdao last and this year, but they are still too big it seems. Stayed three days both times and there was nothing more than a few stares.
- Baeocystin 2y ago
  I (white, blonde and green-eyed at the time) spent a lot of my childhood in SE Asia and southern China in the late 70s/early 80s. Once we got to the smaller, interior towns, we had to be really careful with our movement, as we could attract dangerously large crowds just by going to the morning market or the like. The vast majority of people were just curious, and I have a lot of happy memories of smiles and connections, but a few of coming close to getting killed, too. Still, risk is everywhere, and the positives win out. I loved learning what I could, and I hope meeting us was a net joy for the folks we interacted with, too.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    You were going to get killed for being white in the wrong place?
    - Baeocystin 2y ago
      Probably less to do with being white specifically than simply being a convenient Other, but yes. Most people are great. Some are awful, a few evil. When you stand out, you'll attract the attention of everyone, including the latter, and you'd be wise not to forget that, in all its aspects. The whole reason we were able to survive is that locals looked after us, too, and that's worth emphasizing.
    - archsurface 2y ago
      This is normal in many areas of the world.
  - wavemode 2y ago
    > green-eyed at the time What happened to your eyes?
    - Baeocystin 2y ago
      They turned hazel when I hit puberty. Hair got darker, too. Pretty common in white folks, FWIW.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  > You need to leave Beijing and especially Shanghai and head farther inland to regain your celebrity status! Just going to the suburbs of Shanghai will do it.
edent 2y ago
I am white, but have very long hair and a beard. It was the touristy parts of Beijing where I got the most attention. Usually from tourists from more rural parts of China, or museums with lots of bussed in schoolkids.

anal_reactor 2y ago

I am a polyglot but I have slight hearing impairment, which means that unless someone is directly talking to me, I won't understand anything. Sucks.

pragmomm 2y ago

[flagged]

curiousgal 2y ago
I am curious, do you actually believe these things?
- pc86 2y ago
  Not the GP but this question has me wondering what you mean, precisely. 75% of the comment is just things that happened, so there's nothing to "believe" there. For the rest it's basically two statements: 1. Ultra-nationalism is on the rise in China 2. Going to China as an outsider is ill-advised OK so #1 may or may not be true but either way is an objective thing, it's either rising or it's not. So again, not really anything to be "believed," although you could certainly think it's moving one direction and just be wrong about it. So the charitable reading of the only remaining statement is essentially "you probably shouldn't go to China if you're a foreigner" which yeah is an opinion, and not one I'd take particularly seriously, but it's also not outlandish that someone would believe that. There are plenty of places in the world to visit and if there's a place with a higher chance the locals don't actually want me there, I'll go elsewhere. Most of the time when I see questions like this asking if someone "actually" believes something, the implied second part of the question is either "or are you a troll" or "because no rational person could possibly believe that," neither of which seem appropriate in this instance.
giraffe_lady 2y ago
[flagged]
jajko 2y ago
To keep things polite - that's a bit over the top to call it 'ultra-nationalism' and then in nation of 1.5 billion to point out... 2 attacks altogether for last few months? That's like what, a weak school week in US in comparison? If its there, and this is first time hearing about it for me and seemingly for others, please provide some serious proofs for such serious accusations.

Terr_ 2y ago

> I had the same "local celebrity" experience when visiting Beijing. My own dimly-remembered anecdote involves passing through mainland China back in the 90s in tow of my parents, as an elementary-schooler with very blond hair. (Two qualities that are no longer true.) Even in the downtown areas of Beijing it drew attention, but if you went further out to more-rural zones... Well, imagine small crowds coming up to gawk and indicating they'd like to touch your hair to confirm it's real and/or for good luck. It wasn't just a lack of in-person visitors, but also that the standard of living there 30 years ago there was a much lower, and even the locally-affluent were unlikely to get much media from outside the country.

jmyeet 2y ago

So ~20 years ago I went to Kuala Lumpur. For those not knowing where or what that is, it's the capital city of Malaysia with a population of ~1.8 million people. It once held the title for the world's tallent building (ie the Petronas Towers). So this is a modern city not that far from Singapore. I happened to catch a train to one of the shopping centers while I was there so this was the mass transit system in a relatively modern city. This boy of 7 or so kept gawking at me. He was with his father. I looked up at him, curious, and his father said in passable English that his son has never seen a white person before. That was quite a surreal experience for me, particularly given the environment. I can't imagine what it must be like in rural China with few Western visitors.

grecy 2y ago
> his son has never seen a white person before I drove a 4x4 right around Africa from mid 2016 to mid 2019. It was quite common in West Africa to drive into a village where the kids would run away terrified and the adults would explain the kids had never seen a white person before, and they thought I was a ghost. I drove across an international border where the border guard had been working for 3 years and had never seen a foreigner. It's fun getting off the map.
- unethical_ban 2y ago
  Hey, the jeep guy! There was a guy who rode a motorcycle from San Francisco to Barrow AL about 2014. His and your blogging were the source of some fun what-if dreams of mine back then.