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Q: Random people stopping you in the street?
I imagine this changes a lot depending on where in China you live, but how common is it for you to get stopped by someone in the street and asked random questions?
- I've often been stopped and asked to be taken in picture for "university projects". This includes once in the Forbidden City where two other tourists, Chinese girls, asked to take a picture. I thought they wanted me to take a picture of them two next to the famous buildings...no, they just wanted me.
- People stopping me and, deadpan, asking for my phone number because it was very, very important that we be friends.
Anyone else been stopped in the street and asked odd things?
I've been asked for pictures. If I go for a walk by myself in the evenings, seems all these older women want me to come meet their pretty daughters. I'm constantly bothered by women offering me massages. Every motorcycle taxi driver gives me a sign for sex,, I say i don't like men. Recently I bought a bottle of the local rubbing alcohol and a woman signed that she/me/drink/sleep. I usually use one of the few words I know " NO, tie tie". She tried to drag me off, I had to really wrestle her off.
When younger women offer me massage, I ask how much. They say 300. I say it is not enough, I want 500.
I don't understand why they walk away, I think I'm worth it. No sense of humour, the Chinese.
There is a pattern that's followed so I can predict what sort of questions the locals who stop me will ask - 1. Where are you from? 2. Do you have a girlfriend/ are you married? 3. Do you like Chinese girls? 4. Do you like China? 5. Do you plan to settle in China? My responses to such questions make locals think I am good at their language - having responded to the same set of questions for a thousand times in Chinese who wouldn't master the kind of expressions needed? Well, that's something else...coming back to the question - Put mildly, I find the questions most locals ask when they stop me rather dull. How does a person gather the courage to ask a stranger about having a girlfriend etc? I have a Chinese friend who told me her teacher ( also a Chinese) gave his students the kind of questions they should avoid asking foreigners unless they are acquaintances. How I wish this was a national civic education campaign! Would make some social interactions less boring.
We have a pretty healthy foreigner population in Changsha and I still get stopped and asked to take pictures all the time. People don't usually stop me just to ask me something (other than 'can I take a picture with you), but if I am just standing near someone or riding the bus, they will start talking to me (usually, "where are you from" and "can I make friends with you?").
