we all love america. and one of the things that makes america so great is diversity. colors, creeds, blah blah blah...melting pot and all that jazz. so in america, when you see a chinese person walking down the street, you wouldn't necessarily whisper to your friends, point, pull out a camera, snap a photo, and then post it on the internet. however, this is not the case in china. most people here are chinese. so when someone who's not chinese is walking down the street, it's a big deal. true story: i have seen a chinese man ask a blonde haired, blue eyed american tourist if she would take a picture with his 4 year old daughter like she was mickey mouse at disneyland.
these pictures have been taken over the course of my stay in many different areas of china. of course, places like airports are not good places to enjoy the novelty of seeing a white person in china simply because this is the white person transit point. it is where they collect. and also, given that i'm in beijing right now, the number of white people has skyrocketed since the start of the olympics. but the bulk of these photos were taken in cities other than beijing prior to the olympics.
this picture came with a frame, was removed from the frame, and then taped to the wall of a bedroom in lisa's dad's house. this seems to be the attitude of chinese people: white people are automatically pretty. pretty enough to become inexplicable wall decorations. even white people who are stock photography models from 1992.
one of the funnest parts of going white-person spotting in china is trying to figure out if they're american, european, australian, or (the culturally androgynous) canadian. this picture was taken in hangzhou. the backpack on one, the scowl on the other. these are americans, most likely.
this guy was from australia or something. probably a businessman. most certainly a creepy white guy who has a "fascination" with asian women. you know the type. he thinks they're "exotic".
this picture was taken in an old part of shanghai. european people LOVE adidas. i don't know what he's looking at, but there is probably a frommers guide book sticking out of his back pocket.
the british are coming.
i have a friend named ian corrigan who always walks around in shorts and carries around a big camera. ian is a white guy but he's not in china. lucky for china, this guy is pulling a classic ian corrigan.
the great wall of china is a massive tourist attraction. while there was still an overwhelming amount of chinese people here, there were a few select groups of white people on vacation. this is the back of one such group. if you look closely you can see one guy wearing socks with sandals. there's also a man with a ponytail. and without having to look so closely, you can see several instances of pirate length shpants. these are all traits of the european tourist.
on vacation to foreign countries, it can get lonely. and with so many chinese people around, one could start to miss the company of other americans. at the great wall (of china) lisa and i found a pack of people from new york who heard us talking about jamba juice and knew they were in the company of other americans. now granted, besides lisa and me, there are a couple of people who aren't white people in china. but black people in china, that's even more rare. double points.
