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Q: What would we all be asking if the tables were turned?
Just curious, but what, say in a parallel universe where you are a Chinese visitor to your parallel self's parallel home country, would you be asking on eEngland or eCameroon or eNew Zealand, etc (depending where you're from), cities?
Maybe 'Where in north London can I find good smelly doufu?' or 'What are those lights on the side of cars that flash when they turn corners?'
Would your questions be as angst ridden as so many are on here, or would they be all rosy and bright?
Wait, are you saying that I have to finish my starters before I eat the main course?
Why people stare at me when I am talking on the phone?
Why the food in the Chinese restaurants is that bad? It is not even Chinese
Why the second generation Chinese in ... say they are not Chinese?
Why the westerners wash their underwear in the washing machine? So dirty
Why don't they have subtitles in the cinema?
Why do you only drive on one side of the road?
Why doesn't anyone drive on the pavements?
Why do you BOIL all your veg?
Why do you eat sprouts? They stink and taste like ...........
OHH WHY can't I suck the marrow out of the bones?
Where's all the fruit?
HOW FU@#@#@ MUCH?!??!!?!!!???
Why are the smallest clothes size same as our XXXXXXL?
Scandinavian:
it doesn't count when it is a question locals already ask themselves, no one knows why brussel spouts ever found their way onto the dinner table
Shining_brow:
HEY! I love brussel sprouts!!! With gobs of butter! You guys lay off them!
Why people seem to get so freaked out when I blow snot out of my nose onto the restaurant floor ? Everybody knows (nose) it is perfectly normal behavior !
- Why does people start stupid threads on answers.eCountryCities.com that just turns out to be reverse bashing which is the same as bashing
- Why does the police harass me as soon as I start my car?
- Why does the news talk trash about China?
- Why do these people talk trash about their own government? This never happens with our superior government.
actually in real life, my mother in law, when visiting us back home before we moved to China, the morning after her arrival she takes a stroll around our hood, comes back and asks "Why does everyone smile and say something to me?" She thought she might be looking funny or something, but in fact people are just smiling, saying goodmorning whenever passing people.
mArtiAn:
Who's doing the reverse bashing? Point them out and i'll bash 'em. Unless of course you mean me in which case it seems you are bashing me for taking a bash at folks I felt had unfairly bashed at others, in effect doing the very thing you are chastising me for. It's a strange logic. But i'm done bashing my head against the great wall of echinacities. Fill your boots I say.
Funny story. The first night we were in Canada my wife and I were sitting on my parents balcony in the suburbs. It was about ten at night, so of course the streets were empty. She turned to me and asked, "Where is everyone?"
Then I suddenly remembered how in China no matter what time I got home at night (Barring after 1 A.M.) there were always loads of people sitting in the courtyard of our apartment complex.
mArtiAn:
Actually that is one thing I really do appreciate here; the nightlife. London is hardly a sleeping city but you have to go into the centre of town to find the buzz and bustle that you might otherwise find in most any street here. Could do without hearing guys playing that Cantonese counting game outside the window at three in the morning though.
Where's my dowry?
Why is my daughter chasing after this white guy?
When can I sell my daughter? I can't wait to sell my daughter!
Does anyone want to buy my daughter?
I love money. Can anyone give me money?
Shining_brow:
Call me stupid or something, but are you hinting at something there....?
:
I can't but laugh, hahahahahah LOL. Hulk, how can you manage all this? At least you have a sense of humour. 
MissA:
Dude, from what you've said your MiL doesn't need to go to the US to ask those questions...
"I love this country... they all seem to love Chinese people, and respect us so much... they always wait for us to get onto the bus first!"
"I don't understand... what happened to Beijing's students outside Forbidden Palace? What do they mean 'tanks'???
"Why does everyone here buy their good stuff from Japan?"
"Do they have anything like Taobao here?"
"Why does everyone pay the price that's written on the price-tag?"
"Someone told me it's illegal to set off fireworks after 10pm in this city - is that really true?"
and... "What does 'illegal' mean?"
Why's it so quiet?
Why does everyone line up like an idiot for everything?
Why don't I have to fill out 30 copies of every form just to get one copy of the official paper that I need?
Why do people look at me so strange when I try to offer them a red envelope full of money just to do the job that they get paid to do?
Why doesn't anyone except the British lager louts go to the bathroom on the street? Why do the British think that they still own Canada like they think they once owned China?
Why do people tell each other what they think instead of blindly telling them what they want to hear?
Why do I have to cite every reference when everyone knows that I copied the information from somewhere else?
Why do the cars keep stopping in the street when I try to cross the road? Don't they know I can't get compensation if I don't get nailed by a Mercedes?
Why is it when I clap my hands three times in a restaurant, Tony Orlando appears and asks me if I want him?
Why is it when I roll my shirt up to my moobs at the beach that people keep pushing me towards the water crying, "We can save him...get him to deeper water!"?
Why is it when I go into a store with my manly man-bag and my wife's Hello Kitty bag that the staff keep ask me about my dress and blouse size?
Why is it every time I ask a female employee of a hotel to come to my room that the police come instead and I get charged with harassment?
Why is it every time I kick my dog, slap around my child and slap my bitch upside the head I get a bunch of angry people around me that want to do me bodily harm?
Why is it when I get 25 people together to get into a fight against one person that the laowai laugh and ask me to fight fair?
Why is it every time that I hold the elevator for my wife, who's still in the shower, the other occupants of my building threaten my life?
I could think of more but I'm depressing myself.
-Why don't American students ever study?
-Why can't I get a date?
-Why do other men laugh at my purse?
-Why do they put salt on popcorn?
-Why don't they put salt on cookies?
-Why does everyone smile all the time?
-Why does everyone always ask me if I'm mad?
-How do they all get so fat when their food tastes so terrible?
-Should I stay in the US, and make a lot of money at an American Company but never see my parents, or should I go back to China, make comparatively little money, but live in my parents house until I'm in my mid 30s?
-At (ivy league school) most of my peers were Asian, how come most of my managers are white guys from the mid-west? They all went to state schools for Buddha's sake!
-Anybody know a good place to get silk worms?
- Do we really want to raise are kids here?
- Why doesn't anybody care about spring festival?
- Why do they all care about Christmas?
- If I decide to stay, how do I instill a sense of filial piety in my children in the face of American garbage culture?
-Glen from the Walking Dead is great, why aren't there more Asian actors on TV?
And so on....
Why do police stop me and say I drive like crazy person?
Why do people stare at me when I pee in flower pots?
Why can I not smoke indoors?
Why do people stare at me when I spit in a store or restaurant?
Why is everyone bigger than me?
Why must I answer the questions?
Why are the condoms so big, can fit 2 in, keep falling off?
Why does no one ask me no why?
Why is everybody racist against the Chinese?
Why doesn't everybody hate the Japanese obsessively?
Why do western men not understand that their body hair means they are more closely related to apes, and Chinese are more evolved?
Why do western women complain about their men beating them?
Why does nobody believe Chinese are peaceful?
Why doesn't anybody believe China has never started a war?
Why doesn't anybody accept that we own the Senkakus?
Why doesn't anybody accept that we own the entire South China Sea?
Why doesn't anybody accept that China is the centre of the world, and all countries must bow down to China?
Why do Americans allow a black man to be president?
Why does Australia have a woman as leader? (EDIT: OK, I'm wondering that one myself)
What are elections?
Why does nobody believe our 5,000 year history?
ambivalentmace:
why does my future employer want sealed transcripts of my grades that i paid for already?
why does my future employer want a credit report and verify my references and a real phone number for my last job?
what is this bullshit "trust but verify mean"?
why do you need a signature guarantee for me to sale my worthless company stock to investors?
why cant i just pay money to the police when i have a car accident?
why cant i use an essay from my iphone , apple is an american company who gave me the answer?
why does nobody ever wear black, it hides the dirt and saves cleaning?
why do my college roommates make me shower more than 3 times a week?
why do girls get mad at the nightclub when i offer them money to drink and let me rub their body?
why do cigarettes cost so damn much?MissA:
Traveler, you can like the concept of a woman/black/brown/blue/gay/trans/whateverthef*ck prime minister without actually liking the PM just because she/he happens to be part of said group.
I'm a little iffy on the ginger lady myself, although the prospect of an Abbott government makes me wake up screaming in the night.
Traveler:
Miss A: The references to the American President and Australian Prime Minister were to highlight the unacceptable racism and sexism in China, not as personal attacks against either of the leaders.
