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anonymous
Q: have you ever been asked "are you from Xinjiang"?
Not that i recall. I've been asked so many questions during my time in China. Mostly they are 'What is your age?' 'Do you have a boy-friend?', 'No why?' And I will probably be asked many more. 
But i don't recall being asked this question. I might be one day. It would make a change ! 
royceH:
Two and a half years down....have you been asked any more questions?
I'd guess no.
Zero degree of curiosity, zero ability to think, overall zero.
I frequently challenge students to ask a question I've never been asked before.
It wouldn't seem like a difficult challenge. Something other than...How old are you? What's your telephone number? Do you like Chinese food?
Zero success.
Not that i recall. I've been asked so many questions during my time in China. Mostly they are 'What is your age?' 'Do you have a boy-friend?', 'No why?' And I will probably be asked many more. But i don't recall being asked this question. I might be one day. It would make a change !
royceH:
Two and a half years down....have you been asked any more questions?
I'd guess no.
Zero degree of curiosity, zero ability to think, overall zero.
I frequently challenge students to ask a question I've never been asked before.
It wouldn't seem like a difficult challenge. Something other than...How old are you? What's your telephone number? Do you like Chinese food?
Zero success.
I do during the wintertime, when I have my beard.
The Uyghers will speak to me in their dialect and then not understand why I dont understand them.
When I shave, however, then I just get the "haaaallllllloooooooooooooo laowaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii"
No, but I was once asked about Sex in China on a 30 day Visa.
In Xinzhang itself no one ever called me Lao Wai. Most people thought I was a Uighur and started talking to me in their Turkish language. In the rest of China I go back to the default setting of Lao Wai.
My family comes from the southern Europe- darker, shorter, and with more hair. I also have some Jewish blood from my grandmother's side. With that said, I've been confused with being Jewish, Syrian, Italian, etc.
All the time. I get confused with being a Xinjiang muslim all the time due to my beard. I just walk around and nihao left and right...
I met a bunch of muslims selling Rat Kabobs on the street, and they were really nice to me. One day I came back for more, and they handed me the phone. "Praise and glory be to allah, we have a muslim brother here in China who frequents our stand. *begins speaking chain-fire arabic*" and all I could say was "uh... thanks."
For me it's not really a question about regions of China so much as star systems as being my point of origin.
Yes, here are some questions i 've been asked :
"are you from xin jiang?" --- asked by restaurant ownerss
"are you mixed?"---------------asked by my roommate, teachers...
"are you from thailand?" -----asked by a lot of people
"are you american?"-----------asked by 1 american , 2 french
so I ended up asking my parents "am I adopted?" 
I get asked if I am Uyghur by Chinese people, or if I am Muslim by foreign Arab people. Sometimes I overhear Chinese speculate until one says with certitude "he is Korean".
Also, I get called "handsome", because according to 5000 years of Chinese culture, all mixed people are good-looking even if they only got the bad genes.
Sometimes I get called Jinu Liweisi, so they never ask me to take photographs with them in front of the Forbidden City.
living in xinjiang was awesome, no shoutd of 'heeeeellllloooooooo' ever, because everyone assumed i was some kind of local.
royceH:
I'd be much more likely now, however..... Han 1, Uyghir nil.
No, but I always reply that I am from Xinjiang, when ''they'' said, my ''chinese is good'' ...
No. I am as white as they come. So I'll forever be haunted by the "haaaallloooooss" and "laowai's" and whatever else comes with the territory 
Actually yes - it's a running joke I have with some of my Chinese friends. Other people seem to buy it too. No idea why, as I don't look at all Turkic.
Xinjiang ren ma? All the time, it was the first thing i learned in Chinese. Now i just wanna go there, but my chinese han husband feel afraid of xinjiang people...that is so sad :(
"Laowai, ni shi xinjiang ren ma"? 
Nope, I can't say that I have.
Yes, quite a lot. I get asked which minority I am sometimes too. Not sure why, I am quite white and have green eyes. I want to buy one of their little hats and go around scaring Han Chinese but I would probably get shot by police.
royceH:
You'd need to more to get shot. More likely you'd just lose your house and all your worldly goods.
Yes, quite a lot to be honest. It's fun when they guess where I am from and then i tell them England.
Not yet but taxi drivers thought I was Chinese a couple of times. I was wearing a mask back then. I was happy that they didn't realize I had an accent.
Yes, several times. And it was great when I was sporting my goatee for few month, than some house-sales-man who was trying to give me papers to check offer, I told him that I can't read, and he was very surprised, because I should be from xinjiang at least 
. Same for shopkeeper where I was going for about 3 years, told me I am looking like xinjiang ren at that time. but it was just goatee, not the full beard 
royceH:
The full beard is tolerated in northern Xin, not so the south and south west. Well, it's tolerated but you'll have to walk.
my wife.was asked if our kids had a xinjiangren father. she answered yes, because people steer clear of them.
in the future, if i ever find myself in Mainland China accosted with sarcastic "harrao" again, i will pretend to be xinjiangren.
royceH:
Then probably no change in their opinion of you. They don't have any respect for either.
coineineagh:
i don't care if they respect me. i do like it if they stop bothering me. and a simple "wo shi xinjiangren" achieves it without needing to mouth-breathe heavily, dress in shit-stained rags and pretending to walk with a limp.
I'm usually presumed to be Russian but that doesn't mean they have any more respect for me. Or my wife either, who is still considered to be a traitor. In their minds I'm an idiot outsider and she's fouling their gloriousness.
