What's it like to be white in China?

Anyone?

DaRkEr on that one. He seems to know a lot about Asia.

10 years ago...it was real strange. Lots of stares and fingers pointed, and giggles. The little kids were particularly amazed.

Us "Guaylo's" really stand out....but it seems less of a phenomenon today (or maybe I'm used to it and less self-conscious about it).

I have a friend here that is quite large, over 300 lbs. I think he was even more singled out because of his size (and his huge beard). I remember one little kid pointing and saying "Sanna Cause".....that was pretty funny.

One little kid saw our small group of 'guayla's' (means foreign devil or white devil) walking down the sidewalk and his glass soda bottle fell from his hand as he stood open-mouthed looking at us. His father was inside a lil shop and came running out yelling at the boy for breaking the bottle, but when the father saw what his son was looking at, he stopped yelling, encircled the boy with his arms, and pulled him away from us.

On some of the back streets everybody looks, the streets kinda 'part' and you hear whispered 'guayla' around you. It's a very weird feeling to think that they're sort of 'afraid' of you or something cause they haven't seen any/too many white people (people are afraid of what they don't know???).

Also, if you're blonde (like I am and my daughter is), sometimes they want to pat the top of your head (for good luck). Sometimes they'd ask permission and sometimes they didn't. Even when I'd say 'no' (in Chinese) they would try to do it anyway - especially to my young daughter. It got to be very annoying.

japan was an interesting experience tho, kept getting asked to say things in english

japan was great, you have to see the cherry blossoms bloom

Though I don't consider myself particularly hairy, I do have a bit on my arms. People will stare at that....I guess it's because most guys don't have it on their arms..

its illegal to show pubic hair, if you ever get porn from japan, it will be censored

I worked for a Japanese corporation for 10 years.
I spent a lot of time in Japan and learned (a little bit) what it's like to be black in America.
I was refused entrance to restaurants and night clubs/bars. "No round-eye here." That's what the bouncer/manager(?) actually said.
If I sat down on the train, other passengers would get up and move away from me.
The company had rules that applied only to us, not to Japanese employees.

Overall, it was a good experience for me, but it sure made me think about what it must be like to be part of a minority in the U.S.

i got into a few fights in japan, too, cause of racisim, mostly rowdy highschool students, but i also attaracted the highschool girls (i was 17, dont go yelling perv)

the fights I mean

(most were checking me out too) and then some male students from the same school would yell at me, i'd yell back and then they would go off, disreguarding i had about a 5 inch arms length difference and about 100 lbs on them, and i'm not talkin fat

Grudge because of the a-bomb?

few of them mentioned world war 2, but one in particular, the first day i was there, almost broke my neck with a bokuto (wooden sword) cause me an his girlfriend were flirting (i then myself bought a bokuto, just in case)

i made quite a few friends there, and only really got into 4 fights, 3 of wich stemed from flirting

I do so want you to say more as it is clear to me that the only place in the world that a white male can get a grip on the racism dynamic is Japan. My bi-racial son speaks, reads and writes and can tell some EXTREMELY funny "fly-on-the-wall" stories...

emit a body odor that reflects their diet of dairy products, which are rarely consumed by the Chinese.

I don't know if this is true, but I can kind of see where it sounds halfway believable.

although not personally. I heard it was because we eat so much meat.
The Japanese generally have the worst breath I've ever experienced. I'm serious. Gag a maggot. I think it's because of all the fish they eat, cooked AND raw.

I am a 5' 10" blonde woman and was there in 1982. I stuck out from the crowd, even though I was there with a group.

people in Beijing and Shanghai were pretty blase about us, but when we landed at the airport in Chongqing, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, our guide was late in picking us up, so we just stood around in the airport.

A bunch of ragged men who looked as if they had just left a remote village surrounded us and just plain gawked at us, literally with their mouths open.

On that same leg of the trip, our van got a flat tire in a rural village. It was noon, and people literally ran out of their houses with their rice bowls and chopsticks in hand to stare at us as they ate. They were friendly though, inviting us in out of the sun and bringing us (unrefrigerated) orange soda.