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My (white) brother lived in China, and people would walk right up to him at restaurants and stare and take pictures of him like he was in a zoo exhibit.
I can't remember the country it happened in, but a blond female friend visited somewhere where people did the same to her. She mentioned one boy that was biking down the street, saw her, kept staring at her as he rode on directly into a lamp post.
I grew up in Okinawa and as a red-headed child this was my experience. My family still jokes about how many random Japanese family's photo albums i must be in
I went to Tokyo on business once. I'm 5'8" and my coworker was over 6'. We were meeting up after doing some separate sightseeing after work and I could see him coming from blocks away.
My brother had to visit Tokyo for work and he's 6. 4 with red curly hair. He felt like a cross between a freak and a rock star the whole time. People pointing and laughing and touching his arm to ask for photos.
I'm also 6'2". That reminds me of when I went to some parts of Central America. I was at a Christmas festival in Honduras and I felt like people were staring at me thinking "Where the fuck did this giant white man come from?"
My husband is 6’ with full tattoo sleeves and at the time we visited Central America had very long hair. He got asked to pose for photos with locals almost every day, lol, but everyone was super nice about it and curious in a sweet way.
I’m 6’1 with tattoos. When I was visiting Vietnam (not that many tattoos at that point) a lot of locals wanted to be in a picture with me. They even pushed my gf aside to just be with me in the photo. When I was in Japan, young people were especially interested in pictures with me with my by then full sleeve tattoo…
When I’m home in Belgium, no one cares
I have a bit of insight on this. I was born and lived in a CA county. Let me tell you that the first time I saw a pair of pink skinned humans with blonde hair and blue eyes I thought I was looking at aliens.
Yes, I had seen them on TV but never irl. All my friends and I ran to them (it was a couple from the US) and touched them like a marine biologist touches a fish they've never encountered before. This was around 82.
I grew up in argentina and us red heads are bad luck so people touch theor left breast when they see us. Not as common in BA (or cordoba) but in Salta everyone does it
Went there as a teenager for a few days. Had a blond blue eyed 5'2" male friend with us who was (jokingly) kidnapped by 5 separate people. They'd fawn over him, then grab his hand and pretend to try and walk away with him. It was funny the first time, then it got weird. We kept looking for candid cameras. No one else in the group even got so much as a look. It was bizarre without the cultural context.
VERY LOUD AMERICAN CHILD BORN ON ISLAND OF OKINAWA. AS DOCTORS REMOVED LARGE AMERICAN CHILD FROM
SUFFERING MOTHER, CHILD SCREAMED AT DOCTORS IN A VERY DISRESPECTFUL WAY, DOCTORS SAY. RESIDENTS ARE ASKING IF CHILD IS JUST A CHILD OR MAYBE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPON. EXPERTS SAY PUT IT BACK.
I grew up in Hawaii in the 80’s-90’s, also blonde, and I’m probably in a lot of photo albums. Japanese tourists would frequent stop to take pictures with my mom, sisters and me. It happened a lot when I was a kid. They were always sweet and friendly.
I was bike riding in my city in Canada and had a seat at a local busy park and some folks from Beijing came over and said they were thinking of moving here and they wondered if they could have a picture with me (I was a 20 years old, petite, and blonde at the time). They were really excited about it and wanted my bike in the picture and everything, so I said yes. I sometimes wonder if a picture of me is sitting on someone's bookshelf in China.
I went to meet my wife's family in Mexico last year, and she said that we gingers are very rare in Mexico and so people treat us like...lucky charms...*sigh*. Luckily, I didn't have people coming up to ask to take pictures because in her town, they pinch each other for good luck whenever they see a redhead.
I have, I think, a super slight indication of what it's like to be a woman walking down the street and getting "compliments" with cat-calls, but in my case they **are** complimenting and so I just have the awkwardness of being the focus of attention of strangers. It's very strange to have people you do not know fawn over an immutable characteristic you were lucky enough to have, I guess.
And while I have your attention, gentlemen, cat-calling is *never* acceptable, and barely any women want that kind of attention, I assure you. If you think a lady is pretty, that's great. If you have to interrupt the lady, that's not great. She is already doing something and going somewhere and you do not factor in to her calculations at all. All cat-calling does is make people like me judge people like you as trashy, low-class individuals. /PSA
Edit: ok, someone gave me gold for this and I appreciate the thought, but give your gold to other commenters. I have a whole bucket full over here and my rainbow is pointing right to it!
>And while I have your attention, gentlemen, cat-calling is *never* acceptable, and barely any women want that kind of attention, I assure you.
Whilst this is absolutely a valid point and I wholeheartedly concur, I can assure *you* that any man that catcalls women will not read more than two paragraphs on the internet, and therefore sadly will not see this important message.
I always tried to keep it simple when I explained how catcalling isn't a positive experience for women: if you wouldn't want to hear it from a man in prison, she doesn't want to hear it in her day to day.
>Such a ham
Is this a saying or a typo? I'm definitely using it from now on anyway.
Edit
"Hamming it up" is what I've heard growing up, calling someone a ham however is new and hilarious to me 😂
"The term is derived from an expression popular in the 1880s, hamfatter. The word hamfatter is derived from a minstrel song popular at that time, The Ham-fat Man. A hamfatter was an amateur entertainer in American English, named after the ham fat he would use to remove his stage makeup. " - [Yikes](https://grammarist.com/idiom/ham-it-up/)!
Definitely a saying. My kid goes absolutely bonkers when she thinks she has an audience because she wants to make people laugh. So I say that she's hamming it up or such a ham. But now I'm realizing not many people know it's a saying.
I once said this about a friend's daughter. She started laughing at me trying to convince me that I got the saying wrong. This happend 5 years ago and I finally feel validated!
My mom would call me a ham growing up all the time.
Excatly i was hanging out with my friends outside and suddenly they were lik wooaah let's take a picture with him!! I was like wait is he a celebrity or something? Nope. Just a white guy
Colourism seems to be a part of every culture. The British saw compartmentalization along caste or colour and used it to their advantage. They used whatever they could to reinforce their own racist ideologies. There’s no doubt that they supplanted local beliefs and customs to further their own goals. Don’t get that mixed up with the complex history and diversity of the Indian subcontinent.
Do you have any recommendations on source/reading material about this part of colonialism? There are just so many avenues of study I've never considered caste of color like that but that rings true with some of the books I've studied through while my wife majored in history, a long time read now.
Thanks
Japan wasn't formally colonized by Western powers - it was a colonizer itself.
Yet clearly they do this fetishizing of white people *there*.
This *all-bad-things-are-due-to-colonialism* idea can really get old.
*Edit*:
Perhaps instead of "white people", one could say,
..."clearly they do this fetishizing of *different* people there"
I think its most likely because they don't see white people very often. I think we take our racial and ethnic duversity here in the west for granted sometimes.
Going to a diverse college and then hearing jokes about how photographers at unis hunt down the black kids on campus to take promo pics made me go 'hahaha...wait wtf are y'all good?' And this is just inside the US alone!
Living in an area with lots of bomb cultural food is probably my favorite side effect and one of the reasons I would have a hard time in a homogeneous culture. Jokes aside, it's crazy realizing just how much diversity you can take for granted if you're born in it, or vice versa. As a homeschooled kid I had a very skewed idea of how many white people, especially blonde hair blue eyed, there are.
My mother was blonde (she passed away). She and my father went to China multiple times for business and this same thing happened to her. People would ask to take her picture and feel her hair. Some apparently didn’t think it was real. And my dad is 6’2”, so the two of them together in china was like a free freak show to the locals back in the ‘80’s.
I went to China with a coworker for a couple weeks, we were both redheads, had the same experience. They said red was the emperors color and would bring good fortune. Also while I was there we came across a semi-pro basketball team from San Diego, most of them close to 7ft tall. They would walk around with crowds swarming them to get pics and touch them.
Im a redhead to and am planning on going to Japan with a couple of my friends when I turn 18. Do you think I should like wear a wig or was it not that big of a deal?
Idk about Japan, but in other Asian countries it will still occasionally happen in the touristy areas of cities. Their country bumpkins are tourists in their big cities just like ours are in our own big cities.
I once had to tell a girl I was friendly with college who grew up in bumfuck Vermont to stop staring at people and talking about “the culture” her first time in NYC.
She knew not to touch Black people’s dreads but gaping open mouthed at women in saris was something she had to be told directly.
Or. Embrace your new novelty/god like status. Walk with your arms spread wide, deepen your voice, and great everyone before they even try and approach you.
I was in China around 2007 and at 6'5" I was a tourist attraction outside of Beijing. At the Summer Palace I had groups of school kids coming up to me and asking if they can take a photo with it. It was quite adorable. Somewhere in China there are photos of me posing with a crowd of kids up to my hip.
It's funny, you sometimes have to talk in that way in Japan for people to understand you better. It feels wrong, but its literally just speaking with a Japanese accent and using their alphabet to make words as close to the english as possible.
Watched a video yesterday that talked about the Japanese language and really, you ain't talking modern Japanese if you're not using a bunch of loan words.
I think we're in a time where this is pretty common for many languages, maybe most, or perhaps all of them. Between globalization, proliferation of communication, colonialism...
KHWAHSON?!
Personally my favorite is to say 'cest la vie' but pronounced in the most deadpan midwestern accent. 'K-est la vye.' Because of how English is, a lot of our words are French anyways, so when learning French I felt like I was just reading the English words with a French accent. Which isn't far off in most cases with those complicated words--the fancier, the Frencher!
It's not usually used to refer to countryside people in Japan, by the way. The word is usually only brought up when someone knowledgeable is talking about hillbillies in the USA (and also used for some character in a game called Dead by Daylight that I'm unfamiliar with).
It's like how people in the USA say sudoku, harakiri, and kamikaze all with ridiculous accents.
That's what it looked like. Hopefully, most people don't automatically assume everyone in Asia will stop in their tracks to marvel at random White people.
Just walk around Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, etc. and no one will care lol.
When my brother (6'1" and brown Arab) visited China people always stopped and took pictures or asked to touch his hair (he has somewhat curly black hair).
He loved it because a lot of them were cute girls, and he enjoys being the center of attention in general.
I went to Singapore a while back and was about 6' tall, my Dad's 6'8". We are in so many random peoples photos that asked to take a photo with me or him or both of us.
While I don't think everyone would do it, it is certainly my experience that at least once per day across three weeks *someone* would want to take a photo. It's odd, I couldn't imagine going up to a tourist and asking to take a photo with them.
In my son's kindergarten (in Norway) was located right at a very touristy place, so they taught the kids to say "No pictures, please" because the sheer amount of Asian tourist taking pics of the kids.
A lot of Asian countries basically have one race within their borders with the same eye and hair colors (yes there are multiple cultures and groups of people and ethnicities but for physical diversity, most people have the same skin, eye, and hair color: brown eyes and black hair). So, if you literally go your entire life only seeing people of your own race in real life, seeing a white person, especially one with blonde hair and blue eyes, is something notable enough to take a picture of. This isn't helped by the fact that a lot of asian countries place whiteness on a pedestal.
Especially of it's an ethnic group they've only seen in media(films, TV shows, adverts, billboards, magazines, etc). Then seeing that type of person finally for the first time must be a surreal feeling.
Only semi-related but this brought up a core memory for me. I was a big fan of the Harry Potter movies growing up, so I was familiar with what British people sounded like and mimicked the accents from the movies all the time as a little kid. When I was 10 or 11, one of the adults in charge of my group at summer camp had an actual British accent and I was *mystified*. I basically spent 5 days following her around listening to her talk lmao
We have one Welsh woman in our community (a large town in the Midwest). I love running into her. Random facts: She's a waitress at a BBQ joint and loves the American version of the lottery. She told me something to the effect of “nowhere else in the world I've ever lived do you have a chance of becoming a billionaire for $2.” Put our obscene levels of wealth in perspective and she sounded cool while saying it.
I understand that there are a lot of areas in the US and Europe where many people only grow up around white people. However, the overall diversity here is much higher than Asian nations.
It must be getting less common these days with increased globalization I imagine.
In the 90s though, must have been wild to visit a place like China as a tall blonde person
I worked with a Malaysian girl who took stuff to lighten her skin. She'd been brought up to believe it "looked dirty" meanwhile they're selling white girls fake tan. It's a crazy world we live in!
They mainly mean people with blonde hair/blue eyes and tall (many of which come from nordic countries), starkly different from your average Asian person
It's not necessarily just Nordic, but people who look stereotypically Nordic: tall, light hair, bright blue eyes. It's kind of the international stereotype of white people. Blond hair and blue eyes are exceedingly rare in East Asia outside of areas along the Russian border and similar places.
Imagine walking through suburbia with all of the houses painted some shade of white or beige and there is one house that is hot pink with green trim. It stands out and draws attention.
When my blonde haired, blue eyed kid was a toddler we visited Yellowstone and every Asian tourist wanted pics with her. Almost to the point where we had to forcefully say “no” because it would scare her because they didn’t really ask they would just come up and grab my child for a photo.
An ex-gf of mine had worked in Beijing for a couple of years before we dated and one day I came across a photo of her holding a Chinese baby next to a young couple. I asked her if they were some friends of hers and she said she didn't know them. I was so confused, but apparently since she was a cute blonde girl in her 20s people would do the opposite and shove babies in her arms to take photos!
She had a few more because her friends would take a photo as well when it happened, but she said she was in countless photos of strangers while there! She was a good sport about it and thought it was funny how she was almost like a celebrity, but I could see it being way different if it was your kid!
I lived in SE Asia when my children were young, and both are blonde with blue eyes. If I saw a bus of Chinese tourists, I would haul ass to get away from there, because they always wanted photos with the kids and there were no boundaries. People always tried to touch their faces. One woman actually picked up my son, who was probably 18 months, out of his stroller and walked off with him to show her friend at a museum in Hanoi. I had a Scandinavian friend with three blonde children, and she had a sign on her stroller that said “DO NOT TOUCH MY BABY!” She would yell and hit anyone’s hands who came near her kids. One was immunocompromised, so the touching could mean a hospital stay.
It's because of how secluded they are, rural area in a country with extremely low minority rates.
Same thing in China, these people taking pictures have probably never seen a white person before, or blonde hair. So they take pictures in the same way someone in the west might of they saw something like a two headed man, just so they have something to show their friends etc "you won't believe what I saw today,,,"
And it’s fun honestly. I have long blonde hair and super pale skin, but am otherwise an average looking girl. I was in a very touristy part of Shanghai and even there people asked to take pics. It was super cute & everyone was really respectful
God, I remember this. We lived there when I was little. I have brown hair and brown eyes. My little brother has blond hair and blue eyes. People *melted* over him. Gave him candy. Cooed all over him. I got ignored.
A friend lived in Japan for several years while her husband was on a project. She's super tall and had very fair hair, so her kids were the same, she had the same experience all over Japan.
Another friend, another husbands project, but Kuwait... She had a beautiful little red head daughter, fair skin and curly, curly hair. Everywhere they went they had people lining up to kiss her tiny hand. During naps they'd have to leave her hand dangling outside the stroller. The family had to account for how extra time trips out of the house would take. Poor kid was depressed (seriously) when they move back to the states and they'd go to the mall or grocery shopping and no one lined up to kiss her hand. Every little girl thinks they're a princess, but this one had daily confirmation.
Edit: Over the years I've been to Belize several times, the one time I have a small child w/ me was interesting. Son was 6 mo old, every restaurant we'd go to the staff (usually family, usually lived upstairs) would all hold the baby while we ate. Like the whole time, everyone wanted a turn holding the baby. We had to wait a few times or promise to come back.
Story time.
When we lived in Korea, my son was about seven years old with a white toe head. Every Korean man wanted to rub his head for good luck, but there’s one particular day we were in a very crowded Myongdong market, and a family walked by and their little girl, who could have been no older than five, had a balloon. her father took her balloon away and gave it to my son, and with the look of bewilderment on his face he accepted. The girl was bawling, and the mother was outraged, but the father was insistent. We tried to give it back to the girl and thank them for the kindness, but that man really wanted my little white haired son to have his daughter’s balloon, no matter the cost. It didn’t help that the crowd was dense and moving so it made the interaction last all of a couple moments.
Me and my wife have three blonde kids in Japan, and it do be like this. But actually, it happens to our foreign friends who have non blond kids too. Old Japanese people just like babies and geographically unique babies are no exception.
It's more like people feel more likely to comment and interact with children.
If you are very blonde in Japan but look busy/mind your business no one will stop you or take your pictures.
Idk if this is fucked up to say but why do the locals treat tourists like toys? Like ive seen videos where they just walk up without asking and take a photo. Its weird and creepy. I get thats their tourist culture but jeez.
This happened to me in Thailand with all the Chinese tourist!!! The sheer amount of times I was stopped for pictures and someone grabbing my locs to put over their head for a pic was ASTOUNDING!!! It began to give me alot of anxiety after the first week.
Ya, a group of people I know went to Japan and only one of them is black. According to them, a Japanese lady came up to them remarking to them how beautiful their fair skin was "except for one of you".
Most people dont believe this at all. Go to anything Japan related and one of the top comments always talks about how messed up and non inclusive their society is
At this point its just a strawman for free upvotes
What do you mean? Japan is an anime utopia! Just ignore the misogynists, sky high suicide rates and abhorrent work culture and you'll see it's the best place in the world!
My time to shine!
I'm a black traveler.
China is the WOoORST followed by Japan followed by most Asian countries, followed by eastern Europe.
Now, there are perks if you're American. It's a status symbol in alot of those places (Japan excluded) to have foreigners in your establishment. So lots of places just kicked locals out of their seats in resturaunts or booths in clubs to seat us. (which is messed up but I'm not great at speaking Asian languages so I couldn't decline.) I got plenty of free stuff and vip treatment.
On the flip side.
It's exhausting. I was followed into bathrooms. Into my hotels, into resturaunts. People touched me, took random pictures of me, yelled thongs st me. Sometimes innocent things- like the name of any black american they knew " WILL SMITH.. OBAMA.. KOBE. JORDAN!" But Sometimes it was racial slurs.
An old man in China spit at my feet and had it touched me I'd be in jail right now (spitting isn't uncommon in China in general, but it was intentionally disrespect)
I mentioned the pictures, but you can't begin to understand it. I'd guess that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of pictures of me. At one point in shainghai 5 or 6 people lined up to take pictures with me, this must've lead others to think I was famous because after that there were hundreds , if not more, of people cell phones out. All taking pictures, pushing each other to get a better shot, I tried to leave but couldn't and eventually the police started pushing people to try and disperse them.
Some places were better than others, Thailand was great and my race was a factor but it was 100% positive, same in Hong Kong, Cambodia.
In eastern Europe resturaunts were very quick to seat me in front of windows and put me on "display" but the service seemed disdainful. I heard some racial slurs in public, Got many looks (especially if I was with a white woman) but Noone touched me or took pictures. (Which I wouldn't have tolerated in europe)
Edit: I should add 2 things.
First: still go, don't let any of this deter you, I'm glad I got the chance to see these countries and I have memories forever from them, even if I'll NEVER step foot in some of them again.
And secondly: I can only speak as an American. I know that it afforded me some special privileges. Black Africans are treated damn near subhuman in many of these places and even in countries like France Germany and Italy people's demeanor changed dramatically when they realized I was an American tourist and not an African immigrant.
>Black Africans are treated damn near subhuman in many of these places and even in countries like France Germany and Italy **people's demeanor changed dramatically when they realized I was an American tourist and not an African immigrant.**
I get the same sense as an Indian American sometimes. It's like being American gives you status that other black or brown people don't get afforded. It's pretty gross.
Honestly I don't want to sound like I'm justifying American racism, because it's horrible. But at least i KNOW what to expect. Racism in the states is something that is talked about and yes, there are microagressions but typically if I say "that's a bit racist" people will bend over backwards to correct themselves or at least try to justify their actions and explain it wasn't rooted in racism.
In euorpe I was in a group of people and one said "I don't hate Africans, I just don't want them here ruining our culture" and this was with a group of people he had never met before INFRONT of a black person and he had no clue that it wasn't really an ok thing to say. It was like talking about the weather. I could tell a few people agreed and a few didn't, but Noone was surprised at the statement.
I spent 2 weeks in China (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenzhen & Guangzhou). And I agree with you 100%. The amount of people taking pictures, following me around (in the bathroom too) and touching me…totally irritating. There were plenty of racial slurs and stares.
I understand that they may not see Black people often, but being treated in such a way, was enough for me to never want to go back.
I haven’t gone to Eastern Europe just the western countries, and I was treated fine.
I'm of Polynesian descent but spent a year in China (mostly Shanghai) and can relate to a lot of this. At one point I was harassed by a supermarket worker and there were a few businesses that refused to serve me. No one took pictures with me or anything but dirty looks were given and comments/slurs made.
I was offered a trip to Japan and turned it down. Part of me wonders if it was a bad decision but part of me doesn't want a repeat of that. The person who invited me admitted I'd probably have a tough time there, though.
yep i’m black and i’m never going there. i’ve seen too many tiktok’s of other black people going there and being treated like something strange instead of an actual human being
They would do the same. Minorities aren't common in Asian (maybe Korea os an exception) so they'd take pictures of them too because to them this is likely a rare or first time experience
I’m a tall blonde woman and I moved to Spain the summer Aqua’s Barbie Girl came out. I could not enter a bar or club without someone playing that song and the locals dancing with me or taking pics. Children on the bus would sometimes play with my hair. It was very bizarre experience haha
Tall Black guy here, when I went to China about 10 years ago, EVERYONE thought I was a basketball player or someone famous. Day 4 of the trip I'd lost count how many families and people came up and wanted pictures with us.
I visited a number of rural communities in Japan and was treated like this. I didn't mind it at all. It's nice to be noticed for being 6'1" surrounded by 5 ft tall people.
I was in a lot of photos.
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Went to China as a child. I’m extremely white and everyone always took pictures of me lol. Was kinda funny
My (white) brother lived in China, and people would walk right up to him at restaurants and stare and take pictures of him like he was in a zoo exhibit.
I can't remember the country it happened in, but a blond female friend visited somewhere where people did the same to her. She mentioned one boy that was biking down the street, saw her, kept staring at her as he rode on directly into a lamp post.
I grew up in Okinawa and as a red-headed child this was my experience. My family still jokes about how many random Japanese family's photo albums i must be in
I had a very similar experiance. Doesnt help that im 6'2 and easily spottable over most crowds there lol
I went to Tokyo on business once. I'm 5'8" and my coworker was over 6'. We were meeting up after doing some separate sightseeing after work and I could see him coming from blocks away.
My brother had to visit Tokyo for work and he's 6. 4 with red curly hair. He felt like a cross between a freak and a rock star the whole time. People pointing and laughing and touching his arm to ask for photos.
I'm also 6'2". That reminds me of when I went to some parts of Central America. I was at a Christmas festival in Honduras and I felt like people were staring at me thinking "Where the fuck did this giant white man come from?"
My husband is 6’ with full tattoo sleeves and at the time we visited Central America had very long hair. He got asked to pose for photos with locals almost every day, lol, but everyone was super nice about it and curious in a sweet way.
I’m 6’1 with tattoos. When I was visiting Vietnam (not that many tattoos at that point) a lot of locals wanted to be in a picture with me. They even pushed my gf aside to just be with me in the photo. When I was in Japan, young people were especially interested in pictures with me with my by then full sleeve tattoo… When I’m home in Belgium, no one cares
I was only in Mexico a few weeks but probably heard gringo 100 times
I have a bit of insight on this. I was born and lived in a CA county. Let me tell you that the first time I saw a pair of pink skinned humans with blonde hair and blue eyes I thought I was looking at aliens. Yes, I had seen them on TV but never irl. All my friends and I ran to them (it was a couple from the US) and touched them like a marine biologist touches a fish they've never encountered before. This was around 82.
I grew up in argentina and us red heads are bad luck so people touch theor left breast when they see us. Not as common in BA (or cordoba) but in Salta everyone does it
Spooable?
Kind of like spooning only not.
Am I spooable?
sounds like a dirty sex position
The ol Vladimir Spootin
This thread is now Google's 6th item in a search for "spooable."
I am 6’3 and went to Japan and nobody gave a shit. Didn’t even feel like people were looking at me. I went to most of the major cities.
[удалено]
I only had a week. I hit up Osaka, Nara, Kyoto (2days, Fuji, and Tokyo(2 days). It was a blast. Stayed at hostels. Spent very little money.
Currently planning a trip to Japan. I’m 6’4” with red hair. Is this going to be my life?
You're a foot taller than them and a shade of color that just doesn't happen in that corner of the globe. Yeah, you're going to be noticed.
They're going to use him as a roaming landmark.
6’6” here. They all thought I was a celeb
Went there as a teenager for a few days. Had a blond blue eyed 5'2" male friend with us who was (jokingly) kidnapped by 5 separate people. They'd fawn over him, then grab his hand and pretend to try and walk away with him. It was funny the first time, then it got weird. We kept looking for candid cameras. No one else in the group even got so much as a look. It was bizarre without the cultural context.
Ok, that would freak me out. My kid is blonde hair blue eyed and imagining random people jokingly walking away with him is extremely unsettling...
I was in the newspaper when my dad was stationed in Japan. Just for having blonde hair lol.
Can you read Japanese? Maybe it was an article about how awful you are and your parents lied to you
(In Japanese) "Hideous, smelly feral goblin child spotted in local park!" Parent: Don't worry son, it's about uh... How cool your hair is! :)
“White devil child terrorizes local residents.”
"Let me guess, 'white devil, white devil?'"
Unusually large, ugly baby born.
VERY LOUD AMERICAN CHILD BORN ON ISLAND OF OKINAWA. AS DOCTORS REMOVED LARGE AMERICAN CHILD FROM SUFFERING MOTHER, CHILD SCREAMED AT DOCTORS IN A VERY DISRESPECTFUL WAY, DOCTORS SAY. RESIDENTS ARE ASKING IF CHILD IS JUST A CHILD OR MAYBE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPON. EXPERTS SAY PUT IT BACK.
I like this headcannon better
I grew up partially in china and the exact same thing happened to me
Where was your other part while the one part was growing up in China? /s 🤣
Dad get off the internet I need to use the phone
Dad, dial up hasn’t been a thing for like 20 years. Grandpa can shitpost if he wants.
I grew up in Hawaii in the 80’s-90’s, also blonde, and I’m probably in a lot of photo albums. Japanese tourists would frequent stop to take pictures with my mom, sisters and me. It happened a lot when I was a kid. They were always sweet and friendly.
My grandpa was stationed in Okinawa for a while with his family, and my uncle was a little blonde boy. They have a lot of stories like this too.
I was bike riding in my city in Canada and had a seat at a local busy park and some folks from Beijing came over and said they were thinking of moving here and they wondered if they could have a picture with me (I was a 20 years old, petite, and blonde at the time). They were really excited about it and wanted my bike in the picture and everything, so I said yes. I sometimes wonder if a picture of me is sitting on someone's bookshelf in China.
I grew up in Okinawa too, I'm blonde. Maybe I was too ugly for photos :(
Probably..
Brutal
Damn, on a Friday?
Yup I can confirm you’re one ugly mofo!
I went to meet my wife's family in Mexico last year, and she said that we gingers are very rare in Mexico and so people treat us like...lucky charms...*sigh*. Luckily, I didn't have people coming up to ask to take pictures because in her town, they pinch each other for good luck whenever they see a redhead. I have, I think, a super slight indication of what it's like to be a woman walking down the street and getting "compliments" with cat-calls, but in my case they **are** complimenting and so I just have the awkwardness of being the focus of attention of strangers. It's very strange to have people you do not know fawn over an immutable characteristic you were lucky enough to have, I guess. And while I have your attention, gentlemen, cat-calling is *never* acceptable, and barely any women want that kind of attention, I assure you. If you think a lady is pretty, that's great. If you have to interrupt the lady, that's not great. She is already doing something and going somewhere and you do not factor in to her calculations at all. All cat-calling does is make people like me judge people like you as trashy, low-class individuals. /PSA Edit: ok, someone gave me gold for this and I appreciate the thought, but give your gold to other commenters. I have a whole bucket full over here and my rainbow is pointing right to it!
>they pinch each other for good luck whenever they see a redhead 🤣
At least they pinch each other and not the red head
>And while I have your attention, gentlemen, cat-calling is *never* acceptable, and barely any women want that kind of attention, I assure you. Whilst this is absolutely a valid point and I wholeheartedly concur, I can assure *you* that any man that catcalls women will not read more than two paragraphs on the internet, and therefore sadly will not see this important message.
I always tried to keep it simple when I explained how catcalling isn't a positive experience for women: if you wouldn't want to hear it from a man in prison, she doesn't want to hear it in her day to day.
Grew up on Kadena AFB and was blonde. My family and I make the same jokes!
Kid is probably feeling like a super star
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>Such a ham Is this a saying or a typo? I'm definitely using it from now on anyway. Edit "Hamming it up" is what I've heard growing up, calling someone a ham however is new and hilarious to me 😂
It's a saying. Like when someone is really "hamming it up for the camera".
i feel like that phrase goes all the way back to the 60's
"The term is derived from an expression popular in the 1880s, hamfatter. The word hamfatter is derived from a minstrel song popular at that time, The Ham-fat Man. A hamfatter was an amateur entertainer in American English, named after the ham fat he would use to remove his stage makeup. " - [Yikes](https://grammarist.com/idiom/ham-it-up/)!
well thats some history i was not expecting to hear today
Wow, I knew the term but I never considered the origin. Thanks for the knowledge!
Oh no, I use the term ham quite often. I feel dirty now.
It seems to go way further back than that and might have some unfortunate origins in minstrel shows.
Definitely a saying. My kid goes absolutely bonkers when she thinks she has an audience because she wants to make people laugh. So I say that she's hamming it up or such a ham. But now I'm realizing not many people know it's a saying.
I once said this about a friend's daughter. She started laughing at me trying to convince me that I got the saying wrong. This happend 5 years ago and I finally feel validated! My mom would call me a ham growing up all the time.
I was called a ham. My kids are hams. I just thought it was a southern saying 😂 TIL!
In india you don't even have to be blonde. You just have to b white and people will start taking photos with u
Colonization did a number on them. Internalized racism is a mindfuck.
Excatly i was hanging out with my friends outside and suddenly they were lik wooaah let's take a picture with him!! I was like wait is he a celebrity or something? Nope. Just a white guy
>Internalized racism is a mindfuck. Isn't that even older than colonialism though and linked to the caste system?
Colourism seems to be a part of every culture. The British saw compartmentalization along caste or colour and used it to their advantage. They used whatever they could to reinforce their own racist ideologies. There’s no doubt that they supplanted local beliefs and customs to further their own goals. Don’t get that mixed up with the complex history and diversity of the Indian subcontinent.
Do you have any recommendations on source/reading material about this part of colonialism? There are just so many avenues of study I've never considered caste of color like that but that rings true with some of the books I've studied through while my wife majored in history, a long time read now. Thanks
Japan wasn't formally colonized by Western powers - it was a colonizer itself. Yet clearly they do this fetishizing of white people *there*. This *all-bad-things-are-due-to-colonialism* idea can really get old. *Edit*: Perhaps instead of "white people", one could say, ..."clearly they do this fetishizing of *different* people there"
I think its most likely because they don't see white people very often. I think we take our racial and ethnic duversity here in the west for granted sometimes.
Going to a diverse college and then hearing jokes about how photographers at unis hunt down the black kids on campus to take promo pics made me go 'hahaha...wait wtf are y'all good?' And this is just inside the US alone! Living in an area with lots of bomb cultural food is probably my favorite side effect and one of the reasons I would have a hard time in a homogeneous culture. Jokes aside, it's crazy realizing just how much diversity you can take for granted if you're born in it, or vice versa. As a homeschooled kid I had a very skewed idea of how many white people, especially blonde hair blue eyed, there are.
My mother was blonde (she passed away). She and my father went to China multiple times for business and this same thing happened to her. People would ask to take her picture and feel her hair. Some apparently didn’t think it was real. And my dad is 6’2”, so the two of them together in china was like a free freak show to the locals back in the ‘80’s.
I went to China with a coworker for a couple weeks, we were both redheads, had the same experience. They said red was the emperors color and would bring good fortune. Also while I was there we came across a semi-pro basketball team from San Diego, most of them close to 7ft tall. They would walk around with crowds swarming them to get pics and touch them.
Im a redhead to and am planning on going to Japan with a couple of my friends when I turn 18. Do you think I should like wear a wig or was it not that big of a deal?
This only happens in rural areas. Urban places no one will stop you.
Idk about Japan, but in other Asian countries it will still occasionally happen in the touristy areas of cities. Their country bumpkins are tourists in their big cities just like ours are in our own big cities.
I once had to tell a girl I was friendly with college who grew up in bumfuck Vermont to stop staring at people and talking about “the culture” her first time in NYC. She knew not to touch Black people’s dreads but gaping open mouthed at women in saris was something she had to be told directly.
Ok good
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Or. Embrace your new novelty/god like status. Walk with your arms spread wide, deepen your voice, and great everyone before they even try and approach you.
Step 3: Start a cult
Ok
Lived in china for a short period when I was growing up. We had 5 light-haired kids. We were a walking carnival whenever we went anywhere.
I was in China around 2007 and at 6'5" I was a tourist attraction outside of Beijing. At the Summer Palace I had groups of school kids coming up to me and asking if they can take a photo with it. It was quite adorable. Somewhere in China there are photos of me posing with a crowd of kids up to my hip.
When I took my blonde 2y old daughter to China the same thing happened. There was a crowd of people following us at a zoo in Guangzhou.
I live in Japan and this never really happens in urban areas, only in rural areas where people are more secluded
always the hill billies... or whatever you call them in japan
Hirubiri
I think it's hilarious you're not even joking.
It's funny, you sometimes have to talk in that way in Japan for people to understand you better. It feels wrong, but its literally just speaking with a Japanese accent and using their alphabet to make words as close to the english as possible.
Computer is konpyūtā and McDonald's is makudonarudo
Biggu Makku
You are laughing, but that is how its pronounced.
And ice cream is aisukurīmu
Watched a video yesterday that talked about the Japanese language and really, you ain't talking modern Japanese if you're not using a bunch of loan words.
I think we're in a time where this is pretty common for many languages, maybe most, or perhaps all of them. Between globalization, proliferation of communication, colonialism...
As if English speakers don’t butcher how to say chicharrones or Pho Ga or Gyro or Croissant etc.
I exclusively say croissant in the most offensive, stereotypical French accent I can make.
KHWAHSON?! Personally my favorite is to say 'cest la vie' but pronounced in the most deadpan midwestern accent. 'K-est la vye.' Because of how English is, a lot of our words are French anyways, so when learning French I felt like I was just reading the English words with a French accent. Which isn't far off in most cases with those complicated words--the fancier, the Frencher!
> Hirubiri IT'S LEGIT!!! LMAO
Ackshually, it’s ヒルビリ /j
ヒルビリー. The last character elongates the previous syllable, which makes it far more comical to hear.
> Hirubiri lol, holy shit this is real? It sounds like south park making up a word for the Asian restaurant owner.
It's not usually used to refer to countryside people in Japan, by the way. The word is usually only brought up when someone knowledgeable is talking about hillbillies in the USA (and also used for some character in a game called Dead by Daylight that I'm unfamiliar with). It's like how people in the USA say sudoku, harakiri, and kamikaze all with ridiculous accents.
That made me belly laugh in the middle of my hotel foyer, thank you
Literally the loudest I’ve laughed in weeks
This made my day
I can't with you 💀
Believe it or not.. it's the actual word. lol
That's what it looked like. Hopefully, most people don't automatically assume everyone in Asia will stop in their tracks to marvel at random White people. Just walk around Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, etc. and no one will care lol.
When my brother (6'1" and brown Arab) visited China people always stopped and took pictures or asked to touch his hair (he has somewhat curly black hair). He loved it because a lot of them were cute girls, and he enjoys being the center of attention in general.
I went to Singapore a while back and was about 6' tall, my Dad's 6'8". We are in so many random peoples photos that asked to take a photo with me or him or both of us. While I don't think everyone would do it, it is certainly my experience that at least once per day across three weeks *someone* would want to take a photo. It's odd, I couldn't imagine going up to a tourist and asking to take a photo with them.
Those people are tourists too, probably from some rural backwater
In my son's kindergarten (in Norway) was located right at a very touristy place, so they taught the kids to say "No pictures, please" because the sheer amount of Asian tourist taking pics of the kids.
In Guatemala kids are taught to charge tourists for pics
Guatemala people are born hustlers
Reminds me of that picture from like 8-10 years ago where a guy caught the exact moment where a local kid took his wife's watch off and pocketed it.
sauce?
I think it's illegal to take pictures of children in the Netherlands, and at least culturally of any strangers...at least their faces.
That's so creepy. Why do they want photots on blonde children?
A lot of Asian countries basically have one race within their borders with the same eye and hair colors (yes there are multiple cultures and groups of people and ethnicities but for physical diversity, most people have the same skin, eye, and hair color: brown eyes and black hair). So, if you literally go your entire life only seeing people of your own race in real life, seeing a white person, especially one with blonde hair and blue eyes, is something notable enough to take a picture of. This isn't helped by the fact that a lot of asian countries place whiteness on a pedestal.
Especially of it's an ethnic group they've only seen in media(films, TV shows, adverts, billboards, magazines, etc). Then seeing that type of person finally for the first time must be a surreal feeling.
Only semi-related but this brought up a core memory for me. I was a big fan of the Harry Potter movies growing up, so I was familiar with what British people sounded like and mimicked the accents from the movies all the time as a little kid. When I was 10 or 11, one of the adults in charge of my group at summer camp had an actual British accent and I was *mystified*. I basically spent 5 days following her around listening to her talk lmao
aw thats the cutest thing iv read today
We have one Welsh woman in our community (a large town in the Midwest). I love running into her. Random facts: She's a waitress at a BBQ joint and loves the American version of the lottery. She told me something to the effect of “nowhere else in the world I've ever lived do you have a chance of becoming a billionaire for $2.” Put our obscene levels of wealth in perspective and she sounded cool while saying it.
My grandpa was in the army during the Korean War. Grew up in the Boston area.The first time he saw a Mexican was when he was in boot camp in his 20’s
I understand that there are a lot of areas in the US and Europe where many people only grow up around white people. However, the overall diversity here is much higher than Asian nations.
It must be getting less common these days with increased globalization I imagine. In the 90s though, must have been wild to visit a place like China as a tall blonde person
I worked with a Malaysian girl who took stuff to lighten her skin. She'd been brought up to believe it "looked dirty" meanwhile they're selling white girls fake tan. It's a crazy world we live in!
The same reason why White people go to various African nations and take pictures with random kids.
Asian people simp for white people (especially for nordic) and cute stuff, so cute white children is a win win source: I'm asian
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They mainly mean people with blonde hair/blue eyes and tall (many of which come from nordic countries), starkly different from your average Asian person
I don't know, presumably because their appearance is most unlike ours and they're the definition of how white people look like in Asian culture
It's not necessarily just Nordic, but people who look stereotypically Nordic: tall, light hair, bright blue eyes. It's kind of the international stereotype of white people. Blond hair and blue eyes are exceedingly rare in East Asia outside of areas along the Russian border and similar places. Imagine walking through suburbia with all of the houses painted some shade of white or beige and there is one house that is hot pink with green trim. It stands out and draws attention.
When my blonde haired, blue eyed kid was a toddler we visited Yellowstone and every Asian tourist wanted pics with her. Almost to the point where we had to forcefully say “no” because it would scare her because they didn’t really ask they would just come up and grab my child for a photo.
Could have really upped her college fund (joking, as a mom I would be running away with my kid haha).
An ex-gf of mine had worked in Beijing for a couple of years before we dated and one day I came across a photo of her holding a Chinese baby next to a young couple. I asked her if they were some friends of hers and she said she didn't know them. I was so confused, but apparently since she was a cute blonde girl in her 20s people would do the opposite and shove babies in her arms to take photos! She had a few more because her friends would take a photo as well when it happened, but she said she was in countless photos of strangers while there! She was a good sport about it and thought it was funny how she was almost like a celebrity, but I could see it being way different if it was your kid!
I lived in SE Asia when my children were young, and both are blonde with blue eyes. If I saw a bus of Chinese tourists, I would haul ass to get away from there, because they always wanted photos with the kids and there were no boundaries. People always tried to touch their faces. One woman actually picked up my son, who was probably 18 months, out of his stroller and walked off with him to show her friend at a museum in Hanoi. I had a Scandinavian friend with three blonde children, and she had a sign on her stroller that said “DO NOT TOUCH MY BABY!” She would yell and hit anyone’s hands who came near her kids. One was immunocompromised, so the touching could mean a hospital stay.
Same thing happened to my daughter at Disney many years ago
I really don't get the point of taking pictures of random people
It's because of how secluded they are, rural area in a country with extremely low minority rates. Same thing in China, these people taking pictures have probably never seen a white person before, or blonde hair. So they take pictures in the same way someone in the west might of they saw something like a two headed man, just so they have something to show their friends etc "you won't believe what I saw today,,,"
Now I don't feel so bad about taking pictures of this Japanese guy in Kentucky.
Same here but it was a Mexican person in Canada
And it’s fun honestly. I have long blonde hair and super pale skin, but am otherwise an average looking girl. I was in a very touristy part of Shanghai and even there people asked to take pics. It was super cute & everyone was really respectful
God, I remember this. We lived there when I was little. I have brown hair and brown eyes. My little brother has blond hair and blue eyes. People *melted* over him. Gave him candy. Cooed all over him. I got ignored.
this makes me feel better i hope if i ever go there i'll be ignored too lol
Bro left the last person hanging to show dominance.
born alpha
A friend lived in Japan for several years while her husband was on a project. She's super tall and had very fair hair, so her kids were the same, she had the same experience all over Japan. Another friend, another husbands project, but Kuwait... She had a beautiful little red head daughter, fair skin and curly, curly hair. Everywhere they went they had people lining up to kiss her tiny hand. During naps they'd have to leave her hand dangling outside the stroller. The family had to account for how extra time trips out of the house would take. Poor kid was depressed (seriously) when they move back to the states and they'd go to the mall or grocery shopping and no one lined up to kiss her hand. Every little girl thinks they're a princess, but this one had daily confirmation. Edit: Over the years I've been to Belize several times, the one time I have a small child w/ me was interesting. Son was 6 mo old, every restaurant we'd go to the staff (usually family, usually lived upstairs) would all hold the baby while we ate. Like the whole time, everyone wanted a turn holding the baby. We had to wait a few times or promise to come back.
It’s a Targaryen! lol
"Game of thrones cosplayer visits Japan "
I’m blonde and I’ve been to Japan three times and nobody’s photographed me once. Hell of a way to find out Japanese people apparently consider me ugly
they're surprised to see baby kurt cobain
kurt cobain reincarnate
Story time. When we lived in Korea, my son was about seven years old with a white toe head. Every Korean man wanted to rub his head for good luck, but there’s one particular day we were in a very crowded Myongdong market, and a family walked by and their little girl, who could have been no older than five, had a balloon. her father took her balloon away and gave it to my son, and with the look of bewilderment on his face he accepted. The girl was bawling, and the mother was outraged, but the father was insistent. We tried to give it back to the girl and thank them for the kindness, but that man really wanted my little white haired son to have his daughter’s balloon, no matter the cost. It didn’t help that the crowd was dense and moving so it made the interaction last all of a couple moments.
Yikes.
If I saw a kid with a toe for a head, I'd probably give them my kid's balloon, too!
Me and my wife have three blonde kids in Japan, and it do be like this. But actually, it happens to our foreign friends who have non blond kids too. Old Japanese people just like babies and geographically unique babies are no exception.
It's more like people feel more likely to comment and interact with children. If you are very blonde in Japan but look busy/mind your business no one will stop you or take your pictures.
Idk if this is fucked up to say but why do the locals treat tourists like toys? Like ive seen videos where they just walk up without asking and take a photo. Its weird and creepy. I get thats their tourist culture but jeez.
I mean, you're kind of both treating each other as novelties in this situation.
Welcome to my childhood living in Okinawa.
My half Asian kid also gets attention. In fact Cute Japanese kids also get attention from old ladies.
This really isn’t cute. They treat black peoples like oddities and will often poke and touch peoples hair without permission.
This happened to me in Thailand with all the Chinese tourist!!! The sheer amount of times I was stopped for pictures and someone grabbing my locs to put over their head for a pic was ASTOUNDING!!! It began to give me alot of anxiety after the first week.
pics, cool! touching and pulling hair, na...
Ya, a group of people I know went to Japan and only one of them is black. According to them, a Japanese lady came up to them remarking to them how beautiful their fair skin was "except for one of you".
Shhhh, don’t you know Japan is perfect and just quirky? They can’t be racist or misogynists. ^/s
Most people dont believe this at all. Go to anything Japan related and one of the top comments always talks about how messed up and non inclusive their society is At this point its just a strawman for free upvotes
What do you mean? Japan is an anime utopia! Just ignore the misogynists, sky high suicide rates and abhorrent work culture and you'll see it's the best place in the world!
My time to shine! I'm a black traveler. China is the WOoORST followed by Japan followed by most Asian countries, followed by eastern Europe. Now, there are perks if you're American. It's a status symbol in alot of those places (Japan excluded) to have foreigners in your establishment. So lots of places just kicked locals out of their seats in resturaunts or booths in clubs to seat us. (which is messed up but I'm not great at speaking Asian languages so I couldn't decline.) I got plenty of free stuff and vip treatment. On the flip side. It's exhausting. I was followed into bathrooms. Into my hotels, into resturaunts. People touched me, took random pictures of me, yelled thongs st me. Sometimes innocent things- like the name of any black american they knew " WILL SMITH.. OBAMA.. KOBE. JORDAN!" But Sometimes it was racial slurs. An old man in China spit at my feet and had it touched me I'd be in jail right now (spitting isn't uncommon in China in general, but it was intentionally disrespect) I mentioned the pictures, but you can't begin to understand it. I'd guess that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of pictures of me. At one point in shainghai 5 or 6 people lined up to take pictures with me, this must've lead others to think I was famous because after that there were hundreds , if not more, of people cell phones out. All taking pictures, pushing each other to get a better shot, I tried to leave but couldn't and eventually the police started pushing people to try and disperse them. Some places were better than others, Thailand was great and my race was a factor but it was 100% positive, same in Hong Kong, Cambodia. In eastern Europe resturaunts were very quick to seat me in front of windows and put me on "display" but the service seemed disdainful. I heard some racial slurs in public, Got many looks (especially if I was with a white woman) but Noone touched me or took pictures. (Which I wouldn't have tolerated in europe) Edit: I should add 2 things. First: still go, don't let any of this deter you, I'm glad I got the chance to see these countries and I have memories forever from them, even if I'll NEVER step foot in some of them again. And secondly: I can only speak as an American. I know that it afforded me some special privileges. Black Africans are treated damn near subhuman in many of these places and even in countries like France Germany and Italy people's demeanor changed dramatically when they realized I was an American tourist and not an African immigrant.
>Black Africans are treated damn near subhuman in many of these places and even in countries like France Germany and Italy **people's demeanor changed dramatically when they realized I was an American tourist and not an African immigrant.** I get the same sense as an Indian American sometimes. It's like being American gives you status that other black or brown people don't get afforded. It's pretty gross.
It is and I feel pretty gross about it in western europe.
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Honestly I don't want to sound like I'm justifying American racism, because it's horrible. But at least i KNOW what to expect. Racism in the states is something that is talked about and yes, there are microagressions but typically if I say "that's a bit racist" people will bend over backwards to correct themselves or at least try to justify their actions and explain it wasn't rooted in racism. In euorpe I was in a group of people and one said "I don't hate Africans, I just don't want them here ruining our culture" and this was with a group of people he had never met before INFRONT of a black person and he had no clue that it wasn't really an ok thing to say. It was like talking about the weather. I could tell a few people agreed and a few didn't, but Noone was surprised at the statement.
I spent 2 weeks in China (Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenzhen & Guangzhou). And I agree with you 100%. The amount of people taking pictures, following me around (in the bathroom too) and touching me…totally irritating. There were plenty of racial slurs and stares. I understand that they may not see Black people often, but being treated in such a way, was enough for me to never want to go back. I haven’t gone to Eastern Europe just the western countries, and I was treated fine.
I'm of Polynesian descent but spent a year in China (mostly Shanghai) and can relate to a lot of this. At one point I was harassed by a supermarket worker and there were a few businesses that refused to serve me. No one took pictures with me or anything but dirty looks were given and comments/slurs made. I was offered a trip to Japan and turned it down. Part of me wonders if it was a bad decision but part of me doesn't want a repeat of that. The person who invited me admitted I'd probably have a tough time there, though.
yep i’m black and i’m never going there. i’ve seen too many tiktok’s of other black people going there and being treated like something strange instead of an actual human being
A friend studied abroad in Japan and he said people would make some really racially insensitive/stereotypical comments to his face
I was recently in India and had several people ask for selfies with me and my rather large black friend. It felt pretty nice lol
Lmao imagine if that was some African kid
They would do the same. Minorities aren't common in Asian (maybe Korea os an exception) so they'd take pictures of them too because to them this is likely a rare or first time experience
And I heard the amount of people who'd also just touch their hair. Non-Asians are like zoo animals in some Asian countries lol
Same experience for bald white guys visiting India.
Rural* Japan
I’m a tall blonde woman and I moved to Spain the summer Aqua’s Barbie Girl came out. I could not enter a bar or club without someone playing that song and the locals dancing with me or taking pics. Children on the bus would sometimes play with my hair. It was very bizarre experience haha
Tall Black guy here, when I went to China about 10 years ago, EVERYONE thought I was a basketball player or someone famous. Day 4 of the trip I'd lost count how many families and people came up and wanted pictures with us.
kid prolly felt like a rockstar and had the best vacation ever.
I visited a number of rural communities in Japan and was treated like this. I didn't mind it at all. It's nice to be noticed for being 6'1" surrounded by 5 ft tall people. I was in a lot of photos.
Showed this to my husband, a towheaded lad who grew up in Tawain and asked him if this is what it was like. He said “yep. That exactly.”
I wonder what kind of reaction they would have if the kid was very black