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aimei -

Mandarinstudent, I know that I have it great living here in China. My boyfriend and I have a great
place with an even greater private bathroom (probably even better than a nice living quarters if
you ask me!) Not even a block from our place, there are literally mini shanty towns that the
migrant workers who are currently tearing up the streets around our place day and night live....I
see tons of ppl digging through trash and begging here, and pretty much everybody lives FAR worse
than we do. So yes, I know I'm VERY lucky. When I first came to China three months ago I was
shocked by the way the Chinese lived....I was raised in a very comfortable middle class household
(translation, I was pretty damn spoiled!) and I was totally unprepared to see this kind of
poverty. I hated China at first but I got used to it, and even grew to like it a lot, and even
better I gained an invaluable understanding of just how lucky we really are in the Western world.
That being said, I still feel quite saddened when I am singled out because I am white. Knowing how
lucky I am doesn't help when I can't walk down the street without being greated with a chorus of
"Helloooos！”while a crowd laughs in my face and points. I STILL feel humilated, even though I
know how great I have it in compared to these people, in terms of both standard of living, and in
comparision to the people who engage in this kind of behavior, education. But even this doesn't
change the fact that it hurts, and that they are doing this because I a laowai, and outsider,
different....I want to participate in this culture, and to be sure 95% of the people here are
wonderful. It's just those few that make me feel horrible about myself from time to time....and
yes, I do like my forty kuai Starbucks fraps.....helps little rich spoiled me get through the "bad
China days."

Oh an Imron, thanks for the wayback machine! Forgot how much I LOVE talktalkChina! Btw can anyone
tell me how to quote? I must be retarded because I can't figure it out!



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imron -



Quote:

Btw can anyone tell me how to quote? I must be retarded because I can't figure it out!

When replying to a message, the 7th icon from the right (in between the picture and the # sign)
there's a button that looks like a talk bubble. Click that and two big quote tags will appear
[QUOTE ] [ /QUOTE] Anything you put between these tags will be quoted.










md1101 -

i've been ignoring this thread a bit because there's always a little too much generalising during
china bitching sessions (though not intentionally im sure).

but, aimei, i very much agree with your last comment. i think they sum things up quite nicely
indeed.



Quote:

Personally I'd put the cut-off line at puberty + 2 years. It's a case of being old enough, not
educated enough, to know better. Incidentally, are people below the cut-off line allowed to spit
and litter?

c'mon, roddy, get off your high horse.










Lu -

So, considering wushijiao's comment, would it help if next time a migrant worker shouts HELLOOOO,
the foreigner walks over and has a chat in Mandarin with this worker and his friends? Worker feels
treated like a human being, sees foreigner as less weird, and next time the Hello! might actually
be intended as a greeting.

Aimei, if it's always the same people shouting hellooo at you, maybe you could try this? If not,
there's really not much you can do about it except either ignore it or (shout something back and)
laugh about it, and enjoy yourself the rest of the time.










gougou -



Quote:

would it help if next time a migrant worker shouts HELLOOOO, the foreigner walks over and has a
chat in Mandarin with this worker and his friends?

I've tried that a few times, with little success. Mostly, the helloer was so embarassed by the
helloee's attention that no conversation was possible.

Having said that, I have spoken to many non-helloing members of the scum of society (that is,
everybody who does not drive an Audi) and most people have been delighted to speak to a foreigner,
and sincerely interested. I remember a bus ride of three hours were the young woman next to me
would turn her head every 20 seconds, smile at me and tell me how incredible it was that she was
talking to a foreigner...










imron -



Quote:

the scum of society (that is, everybody who does not drive an Audi)

Haha, are you sure you don't have that round the wrong way?










aimei -

Lu, usually it's just random people doing this to me, at least as far as I can tell. One time this
guy (who I now think was some kind of black cab driver) started literally jumping up and down and
screaming "HELLO!!" at us, trying to get our attention. Well it was just plain rude so I yelled
and waved back "NI HAO!!" which was quite a feet for me since I'm pretty shy.... His friends then
all started laughing hysterically at him and he shut up, go me! And yeah I do ignore it 99.9% if
the time, it's not like I can change 1.3 billion people's behavior anyway. Just sometimes it gets
a little "old", *sigh....*










Lu -



Quote:

I yelled and waved back "NI HAO!!"

This sounds like a very good approach. Go you indeed :-)
Seriously, I understand how you feel, it can get very annoying sometimes, especially if you get it
every day and not just occasionally. But don't let it get to you too much, don't let it spoil your
time in China. Good luck!












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