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Q: Why do Chinese ask us such personal questions but we can't ask their age?
Before my second date was over, I was asked how often I masturbate! I was shocked and out of discomfort I simply replied, "Not nearly as much as you" WTF?
Next time do not chose a bar girl or working girl if you do not want to get such questions 
gouxiong:
In the part where he mentions:
'Before my second date was over, I was asked how often I masturbate!'
My home country is very liberal what concerns of approach towards sex and sexuality but I could not imagine that anything like this would happen.
In China I would then totally rule it out.
Chinese girl talking like this on her second date must be to certain extend 'special' ...
I think they all test us when they first meet us. They are sizing us up to see if we have anything they want and a foreigner who tries to please them by answering all their questions is a great find to them.
Maybe next time she wants to help, don't be so selfish!
I think that at the late Meeting Of All Chinese People, they put you in the list of people to offend. It's all done on purpose just to make you feel angry, and ultimately, conquer the world with some vague evil plan.
Because you are the foreigner, thus you are expected to put up with everything they throw at you, and if you don't want then go back to Foreign country!
This is what they expect, doesn't mean you have to accept it, I never answer their questions if too personal, or I give false answers to mess with them as this makes them angry, "How old are you?" "900 years old" "No you are not, what's your real age?" "For real, I'm a Timelord" "Grrrr, lying is bad *subtle drop in friendliness*", it's not like Chinese lie all the time.
One day a taxi driver was asking me the usual questions, I said I am the prince of Egypt here with my 100 cats, 50 slaves, 27 wives and 71 children, we are in China seeking the best goat to sacrifice in honor for the god with a falcon head. And he believed it, he started asking me about Egypt and my life in the palace.
Mess with them, most are so naive that they will believe you, others will get angry, Chinese have zero retort skills.
dongbeiren:
Yea, as a foreigner you're basically on display for their amusement. When I have my wife's relatives ask me highly personal questions about my finances and future plans I always wonder why I can't just throw back a "ni ne?" Like okay fine, I make this much per month, what do you pull in? And then snicker and say it's not much because I know I make more than them. But when I bring this idea up with my wife I'm immediately told how rude and inappropriate that would be.
It's why students feel the right to play with and touch the foreign monkey (I mean teacher) and objectify them in ways they'd never dream of behaving towards their real teacher (I mean Chinese teacher). In their mind, you are here for their amusement and should expect to be harassed physically and with invasive questions.
Eorthisio:
dongbeiren -> Completely agree, and about the monkey teachers it's not only non-Asian people, there are Hongkers teaching at my company, most are retired teachers with 40+ years of experience in Hong Kong, the students show zero respect to them, touch them and ask very personal questions just like with non-Asian teachers.
You would expect that since Hongkers are Chinese (ethnically speaking) and Hong Kong is China they would behave like they do with local teachers, but they don't, both primary and secondary students.
What I have discovered is that students don't respect or love local Chinese teachers, they fear them, I have seen local teachers threatening students in various ways, one time (with a knife in hand) to cut one primary student's hands is he fights again with other students, and they get away with this... no wonder China has so many psychos if that's what most kids go through. I would ask my boss to fire them after seeing such horrors, too bad I can't since they don't work for our company but for the affiliated local schools we work with.
gouxiong:
Well Eorthisio, not answering the question is in China usually socially acceptable (especially in case of certain type of questions). Offending or humiliating others is then considered rude. Lying is then clearly not preferred behavior. You may consider that people around you are not as naive or stupid as you may sometimes think and that by you mentioned taxi driver can now share a story about 'foreign sucker' who believes that adult Chinese have level of 5 years old. You may consider the culture difference, if the people do not accuse you immediately from wrong doing so it may just show their effort to maintain certain level of social peace rather that they believe your story. May be his questions were supposed to be a subtle hint for you to drop your nonsense speech...
ambivalentmace:
i always tell them i am a poor old man with no family or friends because i hate everybody and everything, this usually ends the conversation rather quickly. if they persist then i mention my bad luck and start giving fake examples, usually this finally gets them out of my hair.
When they get annoying and ask where I am from. I just tell them from Xinjiang, and do they want to see my knife. That shuts them up for a while, till the penny drops and they realise I am making fun of them.
Strawberry66:
I did it several times. When I hanged out with couple of foreign friends and they got bothered by those sales and I just shutted them up by telling them that my foreign friends are from XingJiang. Well, I understand that they want to sell goods to foreigners but it get annoying when it happens everytime.
Sometimes when I walked in the People's square park in Shanghai,there is a big bind matching market there for people to go on blind date. I sometimes got bothered by some Chinese guys when I was walking there,I just simply speak English to get rid of them as I know most Chinese aren't capable of speaking English. Sometimes those guys who replied me with English and kept bothering me for asking my wechat,I just simply say I had no interest. Being cold is always the best way to get rid of people.
But I remember I got bothered by two guys,one Chinese and one English,they kept bothering me after I told them I have boyfriend already. I got very annoyed and just left.
just ask them if they invite you for an expensive dinner you will answer their questions!! ha
I always thought it was a kind of narrow-mindedness a lot of people here have...where they know how to act towards each other but just don't make the leap that westerners should be treated the same. I.e. it's rude to ask people how much they make but a westerner is different enough that the rules of conduct don't apply.
But really it's not just a chinese thing. It's much worse here but if you're back in the US and you go to get gas in a really nice looking car. Like you pull up in a bentley or a ferrari even if it's a few years old, people will ask you what it cost and what your job is that kinda thing. It's the same sense that if you have access to something like that you are different enough they don't have to restrain their curiosity. The rules of appropriate conduct no longer apply. I'm sure that's also what being a celebrity is like
The masturbating thing I don't get it but the other stuff I can understand. Curiosity. You are here and you are foreign. Simple things are less impersonal and more susceptible to enquiry. On the other hand they are local and they have their own customs which they assume you don't adhere to (which many of you don't). The barriers of social inhibition are immediately forsaken just because you are different. It's not that complicated.
expatlife26:
Im not sure exactly what your point is...are you saying it isn't rude it's just curiosity or that it is rude but we shouldn't be surprised?
I always rejected that kind of "they're just curious!" explanation. It's still rude. It's not like curiosity and rudeness are impossible to go together. It's like making excuses for a 5 yr old child.
Timtimtim:
I didn't say it wasn't rude, I said I understood it. It's not very constructive to simply point out the error without validating it. Most people love that here though.
expatlife26:
But I don't know how constructive any of this is in terms of addressing the issue. I don't see expats coming together to protest intrusive questions and "check the privilege" of locals who make us uncomfortable with instrusive questions. I think we would all agree that would be an asinine course of action for many reasons.
When someone posts something here it's really about venting the frustration rather than really trying to solve the problem of intrusive questions.
Timtimtim:
The problem I have with this. It's maybe venting sometimes but most of the time it's brooding. We probably do similarly annoying things that aren't realized by us. I offered someone a smoke the other day and I was even doing that wrong. You're supposed to hold up two and they reach for the further one. I didn't even know it annoyed people. I think instead of sarcastically answering questions from other people or blowing them off as unrefined. We could simply communicate. Never failed me. Instead we have people coming here brooding and escalating their own problems and creating bias.
I kinda get the masturbating thing... I think.
I think it reflects to what i've been asked : "do you have a strong desire ?" Basically they just wanna to know where do you stand on the line of focusing on work or going to hump her 
.
My answer is always the same: "You wont be able to cope up with it" ( true, but some take it as a challenge which is always nice 
).
As for the age just take do this: guess her age, you're probably three to four years under in most cases, but stick to that age to make her feel pretty.
Also to mind the Chinese have a VERY warped view of western values, they think we are so free and liberal when it comes to sex, but like many things they go over the border. I remember seeing Chinese exchange students watching porn in the library, sometimes without speakers. Had to explain to them that was not proper ( and i'm not talking about one or two). Funny now but very disturbing when you're just trying to finish an essay.
