A daily phrase for us. ” Look, look! two foreigners!” “Look, look! say Hello!” “Hallo!” Quick quick, take a picture!
Those are the nice ones. The hardest thing to live when you are a waiguoren living in China is the staring. The insisting, persistent staring that leaves you wondering… “are they going to attack me? rob me? rape me?” Are men pervs or is it the first time they see a foreigner? But women and kids stare too, they point and talk about you, thinking you don’t understand.
You are a waiguoren. People won’t share a table with you at restaurants. Waiguoren sit upstairs, where they won’t disturb the Chinese. At work, each country has its staff room, no mixing, one upstairs and the other downstairs. Waiguoren are strange people, because they come to China when their country is rich. Waiguoren are American. (other countries and languages are minorities). Waiguoren are rich, so we have to be nice to them. But those two waiguroen that live over there, those are nice but a bit strange. When they come buy something they wait such a long time before talking, and they always say hello when they see me. And also, the girl drinks beer!
Of course taking pictures of these situations was impossible to do, but the staring was largely possible. Just so you know, the photos were taken with my phone and the persons didn’t know they were being photographed. Otherwise they get scared and go away…
It’s like a scary movie 😀
Everybody is watching you… staring at you…
I think the staring isn’t supposed to be mean, but they just forgot how to smile !