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Published: July 18th 2012
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A couple things to start:
1. Sorry my blog is a bit behind the times. I'm trying to do all I can before I leave Beijing (last day of work is this Friday!) so I have less time in the evening to update. I have entries typed up, I just need to take some time to add the photos!
2. This top 10 is extra funny because I got just 1 piece of "hate mail" (as I refer to generally negative comments left by anonymous Chinese people - who I suspect may be government censors/employees) on my blog lat week. I deleted the message cause F&*# them, I control the content of my blog. But it was something like 'Stop complaining about being stared at, if a giant gorilla walked down the street it would be stared at too!!!' The English wasn't that good though. Apparently I'm now a giant gorilla. This has dashed my original idea, which was that I was just the most beautiful girl any Chinese person had ever seen (white fever!!) But anyways, the point is, I will stop complaining about being stared at when people stop staring. Which means never. DEAL WITH IT, CHINA!
Alright, onto the list...
If you're not Chinese, and you find yourself in China, one thing you should definitely expect is that people will stare. A lot. They will stare on the street. They will stare on the subway. They will stare while you eat. Young, old, and all that's in between will stare. You are just the most fascinating person or thing that they have ever seen.
So, what's a laowai (non-Chinese person) to do? All of us living the temporary ex-pat life have our different techniques so I've compiled them here for you! Credit to Fernanda, Dave and Zach 1 for helping me with this list.
1. Pick your nose and eat it. If they keep staring, pick your nose again and offer what you pull out to them.
2. If they're staring and speaking Chinese, walk up to them with a big smile and start speaking jiberrish in a way that is imitating Chinese.
3. Stare back. Have a contest.
4. Moon them. Or flash them. Or both. They probably won't stop staring after you do the first one so you'll have time for both.
5. Make them give you a high 5.
6. The best stare (IMO) is the head-turned stare back after they've passed you and nothing is better than when they are driving a motorized vehicle and do this. If you catch them doing this, point your two fingers at your eyes, then one finger at the road to tell them to keep their eyes on the road!
7. Swear at them in a language they don't understand. In general, people only know Mandarin so really anything will work. Though they're likely familiar with English swear words from the media and such.
8. Whip out a camera and take a picture!
9. Wave or acknowledge them in some way. To them, you are like an animal at the zoo and they really just want to tap on the glass and get you to do something.
Waving makes them very, very happy. Granted, it won't make them stop staring.
10. In honour of a previous top 10 (
http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-725746.html ) - DRINK!!!
-Dafne
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