By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Why are foreigners I meet on the street such d-bags??
I went to visit a new city ( town) yesterday with my GF. Heard about this great lao wai ice cream parlour but with only a general area..we were lost. After Google didnt help, My only option was to ask around... didnt wanna go all that way for nothing. Saw another foreigner walking with his GF so I politly stopped him, asked if hes from the area, and ff he knew about the place.
The whole time im talking to him hes looking at me like i have the freakin plague..... i could be imagining it but im sure his spine bent backwards in an unnatural position trying to get further away from me. He said no, gave me a smirk and startng walking away.
I asked him for one more favour.. to take that shit eating smirk off his face or Id help him... he left without a word....
Am I wrong? but would any of these people back home be so blatently rude to your face without expecting some kind of reaction?? Now I dont really think a dirty look , deserves a beatdown, but he was soo disrespectful to me in front of my woman, and by proxy to my woman, who just wanted some damn ice cream haha i figured either punching him or making him run away like a vag was in order....
My question is why??? Im not a dirty smelly hippy ( no offense to dirty hippies... your mom loves you) Im not sitting around drinking beer, I was in a shopping mall. Have they forgotten the social order? Do they not remember what happens when your rude to a bigger guy? I have seen this before, and I cant understand it..
Too be fair, I dont exactly wanna be friends with everyone I meet, but I can give the common curtesy to answer a question if someone is lost....
It is like everything in life, you have all kinds of people.
I am not the kind of person who will smile at every single person I lock eyes with, so i have come across as unfriendly. However, if I am in a smaller city or town I will make the effort to at least smile or say "hi" to any foreigner I cross paths with (not so much in Beijing, since we are EVERYWHERE!).
However, if I see a foreigner trying to communicate in Chinese or using body language or animal sounds I will offer my assistance in translating. I do not like to see anyone humiliate themselves.
Sometimes I get a "hi" in response to my greeting, other times I get pointedly ignored (this happened once when I had to share a table with another foreigner in a noodle shop. One quick glance at me, and he made sure that I knew that he knew that I was there and was pretending that I wasn't).
He knew. I know he knew. And he knew I knew he knew. I KNOW he knew I knew he knew....
Maybe he doesnt speak english was only in shock and panicked or aomething. Or you are too good looking he saw you as a threat to his gf and ran away... There are good people it was just bad luck 
there there
mike695ca:
haha good answer! But im pretty sure he spoke english.... and it wasnt shock but more disgust on his face hahaha so maybe im really not that good looking haha Anyways, maybe I should be more positive, seems to work for you
GuilinRaf:
Good point!
The "default foreigner languages" here in China, in my experience, seem to be English and Russian. Putting myself in the shoes of someone who speaks neither one, I would guess it would be rather annoying having everyone "assume" that you speak one of those two.
God knows, but I learned not to talk to strangers in China quickly. The foriegners here, unless you've been introduced by someone you already know are to be avoided.
mike695ca:
Haha Why?? I dont get it... I understand that there are alot of freak jobs here but a quick visual test will tell me not to avoid them like an STD
No animals living in their hair?? Check
Not over 50 with a child girlfriend?? Check
Doesnt look like hes gonna follow me home and kill me in my sleep?? ..... OK I get your point.
Sadly - that actions gives bad impression on foreigners in general.
But many of Us are quite different, and have no problem with simple social behavior.
Too many foreigners hear are giving us a bad reputation. They walk around like there gods gift to women and see other foreigners as a threat to the attention. But you can normally spot these guys a mile away. I would helped you think in bigger cities some people just so fucking rude. i remember in Hong Kong i tried to ask someone for directions and he just walked right by. Good on you for asking him for that second favour that guys need a reality check and not so big headed to forget his manners and respect his upbringing where we were taught to be polite and helpfull if we could.
My theory;
Back home people are usually glad and happy to help you because all the ones who are not like this are gone (ie in China). These kind of people are wondering why things are not so sweet back home and why they don't exactly fit in. They can get away with their slimy attitudes here, unfortunately.
People have all different kinds of reasons for coming to China, the a**holes reason is that they're losers back home and nobody likes them so they want to get away.
i dont know the reason but i think most of them are really douche bags.....
LAR:
So, you don't know the reasons..you don't even know the people..yet you make an ASININE GENERALIZATION ABOUT ALL/MOST OF THEM BEING DOUCHEBAGS. What a ******* IDIOT.
LAR:
Yes Victoria, children in the same family are different. But, it is highly offensive when as the above poster said.."most foreigners are douchebags". :( This makes no sense (this poster doesn't know the reasons or the people or the circumstances,etc.!) and it's rude to say that!!!!!!!!!!! :(
:
with respect, dear LAR and VICTORIA i didn't meant to offend anyone here on this forum ,my point was about most of foreigners not all of them ,maybe you misunderstood me and i really appreciate what you have said and i respect it and i have to say sorry if i offended you or anyone on this forum,
It seems like you took things to seriously! Maybe he thought you were a douche for telling him to wipe the smirk off his mouth!
The guys I met that had been in China along time looked burnt out and miserable. I saw men (USA) regularly that I was told lived in China but would never even Hi. I'm Canadian of Ukrainian decent, the Russians I saw wouldn't talk to me. Many foreigners ignored me, but maybe they didn't speak English, but never said a word in any language. I can swear in 6 languages.
One of my Chinese friends was a registered tourist guide, he was always trying to meet tourists and they just blew him off. Even tourists know everyone in China wants to scam them.
I think some guys that live in China along time forget how to be friendly and out going after a while. They become more like the Chinese, living in small circles. I think they become comfortable in their isolation.
Victoria1987:
Funny,foreigners ignore you.But you and them look diffrent
Haha~ I think you totally misunderstood what this smirk means.
Whenever I meet another foreigner and his Chinese girlfriend, I always
give a big smirk.. Since we know the secret of eternal happiness
while everybody else in the world doesn't. It's our inside secret. And you're wandering around, looking for this ice cream place and you ask another foreigner guy for directions. As a foreign guy who is totally locationally challenged myself, I find it surprising that anybody would ever ask me for directions instead of a local Chinese or even my girlfriend.. Even if I knew where the ice cream place is, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to tell you which streets to go to visit it. Hell, I probably don't even know where I am, I just follow my girlfriend around and enjoy the sunny day.
I go more than 2 blocks away from my home and I'm lost already. That's what Chinese girlfriends and phones with GPS is for. I'm from New York and I get lost in New York City all the darn time because I always look at the map and think I need to go straight and take a right, but then the subway exit is on the opposite side of the street so I end up going the completely opposite direction walking right out from the subway.
And to think, people regularly try to ask me for directions in a country I haven't been in for more than a few months. Of course that'll make me smirk. You guys are all just playing a joke on me right? RIGHT??? Please tell me you're not seriously thinking I could help you out with directions more than a local Chinese could..
Anyway, next time make sure you put the ice cream shop into your phone's GPS, and *NEVER* make assumptions that people are douchebags until you get to know them.
Americans don't like people getting up in their face as it's both disrespectful and threatening, and if you do, that likely explains why he avoided you like the plague. Then you go shouting at him to "wipe the smirk off his face"... Again, just disrespectful. IMO, you sound like more of the douchebag than the guy with the smirk.
Just my 2 cents as an American.
manasyt:
'Americans don't like people getting up in their face as it's both disrespectful and threatening' ....that's like a main difference between you and Europeans...The US is not such a friendly place after all 
Other than that your point is right. But I'd never feel threatened if someone asks me for directions haha. That takes me back to my visit to NYC...
Maybe you just bring it out in them. Really. No attack, maybe you do.
Well, it just figures. If Google can't help you, nobody can! 
mike695ca:
Actually, that may be the best point... but I was hoping! And realistically, if someone was i my area and asking about a foreign restaurant or something, im sure I would have an idea of what they were speaking about. Most would I think
no why lmao
most expats are losers and cant make it in their own country usually socially inadaquet or to stupid to find work so they come here and act like their !@#$ dosnt stink well iam here to tell you it does stink
I also occasionally get that problem. Sometimes I want to tell them that I am not too stupid to come thousands of miles away from my home to China to steal a bag of tea worth 5 kuai (which btw would be a huge loss of face, haha). if i wanted to steal something I would have robbed a bank millions of RMBs. I don't mean that I am a thief, but it is ridiculous to think that a foreigner would come to China to shoplift something as small as a bag of tea!
But there is no logic behind Chinese believes, it is all MAKE BELIEVE. For example they tell you all Xinjiang people are thieves but I have never seen a single theft incident perpetrated by Xinjiang person, while all the robbery and pickpocket incidents that I witness or watch on TV everyday are committed by Chinese thugs other than Xinjiang people!
So the bottom line is whatever the reason they are following you is, they will never stop it! So don't waste your time and energy trying to convince them to change their creepy behavior.
MissA:
Don't believe a word of what Chinese people have been indoctrinated to tell you about the Uyghurs; I found them warm, friendly and welcoming when I lived in Xinjiang.
GuilinRaf:
Spot on, Miss A! Most of the Uyghurs I have met are really nice and friendly. They tend to be a bit reserved at first, but who can blame them. They have an unfairly bad rep so they need to guard themselves. Once they get to know you a bit better and realize that you harbor no preconceived notions about them, they can be very friendly.
Because we enjoy being douche bags.........ok ok.............maybe only me enjoys that.............So what?!!!!!..........I met some chinese douche bags.why the hell wouldn't i meet some foreign douche bags?!!!!!!!!.......Balance my friend.....balance................Being a douche bag is not by nationality.........It's by personality
LAR:
Well said..Crea!!!!!! * Judge people INDIVIDUALLY based on their actions!!!!! That's rational,fair and balanced!!!! * Don't be stupid and prejudiced and judge all foreigners as bad or douche bags or whatever!!!!!!! * It's UNFAIR and UNJUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(
** WE DON'T APPRECIATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(
Pardon my French, but this thread is f-ing retarded.
I find this offensive, and it looks like a poor attempt to get some hateful answers from foreigners, in order to then post then on Chinese websites, claiming "look how even expat forums treat us Chinese like shit", and oiling up the propaganda machine.
Createach:
Do agree......Sounds weird to ask this question here.............Anyways i think my answer was decent and satisfies all parties
mike695ca:
You sound like a paranoid crackhead. This is an expat forum... its a common occurance, a valid question. Why is it ok to complain and say racist shit about chinese on this site, but saying something most people here have experienced is not trolling or feeding a propaganda machine?? The only reason you feel offended is perhaps your the exact kind of douche bag being spoken about.. struck a nerve?
Mr_spoon:
Did I ever say it was ok to post racist things about Chinese people? Read again. Your logic here seems to be that since some people are being racist, you should be able to post racist threads as well without consequences. How childish.
And looking at how you directly called me a douche bag AND a paranoid crackhead because I criticized your question, I'd say I'm not the one whose nerves got struck.
Awesome, now after you've had some bad experience talking to one foreigner you lump the rest together and label them as douchebags.
mike695ca:
No no no, you misunderstand. Im not a foriegner hater by anymeans... I wouldnt bother posting here if I was. I was using the story as an example of a common occurance of laowai meeting each other on the street and either pretending they dont exist or feeling distain towards them without ever meeting them. Surely you have seen it, either done it to someone or had it done to you.
Im not suggesting every laowai should be best friends, or that back home everyone is friendly as neighbours, but there are common curtesies that SOME seem to have left back home.
LAR:
Mike, I think that you just had one bad experience. Most of the foreigners that I've met are pretty nice. Sure, there are bad apples where ever you go. I encountered yet AGAIN some punk-***,arrogant and stupid Chinese this morning..wanted to smack one of them in the face..but on the other hand I know some nice Chinese people. Yes, some people do lack common courtesies..a sad truth. I think that Stephanie was right..it was bad luck and I would respectfully add bad timing.
no why actually you are right most of them are social outcastes in their own country cant make a living no one wants to talk with them when they come to china they think they are hot !@#$ but actually they are a piece of @#a% THATS WHY
It is like everything in life, you have all kinds of people.
I am not the kind of person who will smile at every single person I lock eyes with, so i have come across as unfriendly. However, if I am in a smaller city or town I will make the effort to at least smile or say "hi" to any foreigner I cross paths with (not so much in Beijing, since we are EVERYWHERE!).
However, if I see a foreigner trying to communicate in Chinese or using body language or animal sounds I will offer my assistance in translating. I do not like to see anyone humiliate themselves.
Sometimes I get a "hi" in response to my greeting, other times I get pointedly ignored (this happened once when I had to share a table with another foreigner in a noodle shop. One quick glance at me, and he made sure that I knew that he knew that I was there and was pretending that I wasn't).
He knew. I know he knew. And he knew I knew he knew. I KNOW he knew I knew he knew....
I think that there have been some good answers to this question and also some valid comments. I think that there are many people on this site that make comments or give answers to almost every question. It's not likely that this 'core' of maybe 5 or 6 people are going to know everything about everything. I'd like to suggest that this 'core' group may have strengths and also some 'topic' weaknesses.
I've only met a few foreigners in China in the 15 months that I've been here. I teach in a county south of Chengdu so am somewhat isolated. However, the only foreigners that may have questionable attitudes or appear to be rude are on this site.
Has it not not occur to you that when you approached him, his first thought was, oh! No here's a Douche Bag.
mike695ca:
Haha of course it has! But thats the whole point! All foreigners are so weary of each other unless personally introduced by a freind that he automatically treated me like a douche bag before meeting me. hence showing his true douche bagginess. ( if thats not a word.... it is now
