"All Westerners are American"

[shibole]

I heard a rumor that long ago when the Mongols invaded Europe they captured European women and brought them back to Mongolia. Since then some Mongol people have had blond hair I found this link with some photos:

http://www.asiafolks.com/index.php?showtopic=211&pid=22440&st=0entry22440

Some people on that forum are saying they're albino though.

[fireball9261]

Interesting pictures.

I believe albino has red (or light colored) eyes and very pale skins. Those blonde haired Mongolians had black or dark colored eyes, and their skins do not look pale at all - not the albino paleness. I had seen albinos before (one of my classmate was albino), and they do no look like albinaos. The albino skins had this very abnormal paleness that the sun wouldn't tan it quite like the other people. Actually, because of their special skin, they would more likely burnt than tan under the sun. They would have peeled skins and pale skins in turns and never get the tan. If you looked at some very fair Europeans, they do the same thing under the sun. The albinos were even worse than them. My albino classmate told me once that she could die if she was under the sun too much.

Besides, my brother had blonde hair when he was young before 10 years old, and his hair grew darker as he grew older. I heard a lot of European kids had the same thing. One of my white American friend had blonde hair when he was younger, and now he has dark brown hair border on black hair.

[Lu]

The guy in the last pic looks albino to me, and possibly a few of the kids too, but not the kid in the second-to-last picture.

I think albinism comes in gradations, some albinos are completely white, but some are just very pale with yellowish hair.

I see albinos in Taipei once in a while, and sometimes I wonder if they are the summum of 美白, white as they are.

[shibole]

Yea, it's hard to say why the people in those pictures look the way they do. That's why I called that claim about the Mongols a "rumor." It's literally something random my brother heard from someone while he was living in China and I don't know of any reference to really back that up.

[rezaf]

Kazakhs and Mongolians probably have got their blonde hair from Russians.

[fireball9261]

My Mongolian reporter friend said that she had seen Chinese with blonde or lighter colored hair and grey and green eyes in Xinjiang province area. They are among the Chinese minority ethnic groups, like Hui (for sure) and Mongols (maybe), etc. She didn't guess how they got their colorings. I would also think Russians.

[carlo]

I think a broader issue is one of perceived cultural background. People may know that you are from Bulgaria or Iceland, but still expect you to celebrate Thanksgiving. There are books sold on "Western culture" and "dealing with foreigners", but they are typically written with a North American background in mind. You constantly hear people making statements on how wide the roads of 外国 are and how it is common for people to bring guns at school in 外国. That turns even resident Lybian diplomats into honorary US citizens.

I guess you need time to get your stereotypes right.

Speaking of which, it helps to think of human differences as the statistical distribution of visible traits in a population. It's likely a small percentage of inhabitants of Mongolia (and China) had blue eyes as far back as prehistoric times, there is nothing intrinsically 'Russian' about a pair of blue eyes.

[feebie]

Im white

people assume I am American

I hear people talking about me in Chinese

saying meiguoren

mostly in a friendly way

although some people screw up their face and say "meiguoren"

people also ask me "ni shi meiguoren ma?"

I feel like China is pretty focused on America.

There are quotes from American presidents in the hallway at BLCU (in building one)

People use American English a lot

People are interested in reading speeches made by Americans

Also when something is supposedly "international"

I usually find it seems American

I find it weird that often people assume I am American

Perhaps it is because there are a lot of Americans in Beijing

Actually lately 2 people have assumed I am French

maybe that is just because they meet a lot of French people

who knows?

[IcyBlade]

well, i guess it all depends which part of china you visit.

if you visit the northern parts of china, for example, heilongjiang province, inner mongolia, xinjiang, whites automatically become russian, because they border with russia, and they usually only see russians.

if you visit the coastline of china, tianjin, beijing, shanghai, ningpo, guangzhou, fujian, or yunnan, they see mostly americans, and therefore whites automatically become american. (before world war 1, you would be british)

if you visit the other parts of china that's further inland (with the exception of tibet, cuz' somehow americans love to visit there for mountaineering), a white is just considered alien. no one would want to guess your language, nor know how to speak your language. so if a conversation is struck up, you'd most likely hear a sincere "where are you from?" and then if you're not american, you'd hear a surprised "oh", because they won't know where in the world your country is. because most chinese have never even had the chance to finish visiting other parts of their own country. that's for the farmers and bourgeoisie though. if you meet with the aristocrats (strangely in a communist country, they do exist, because they have slowly evolved to become socialists, economically), they should be more knowledgeable of how the globe looks like.

[huisheng]

I've been thinking this. Americans like to say which state they come from instead of US when introducing themselves e.g. Smith would say he's from Chicago, Illinois. This is interesting because they literally assume people know all the 50 American states. You know what, one may have heard Chicago, but doesn't necessarily know Illinois.

[IcyBlade]

lol that's true for the larger countries. they do that in china too, assuming you know which province, which county and town they're from. but the chinese generally have to memorise the map of their country in school, so don't be surprised they know the exact location of each town.

for american states, most non-american people who have read Time magazine (hint: i'm a reader too) would know the names of all american states. though i can't list them to you heh! but most people probably don't know the exact locations of each state.. except the obvious ones like Hawaii haha..

[here2learn]

As an American, often when I'm asked where I'm from and I say "America" or "the US", they follow it with "yes, but where?" as if they KNEW I was from the US, duh, but want to know where. But I don't know how many people know where my state is, so I say the state, followed by how far I am from the nearest major city.

Some people seem to be proud of knowing more about the US than I do, while others don't know or care much about it. And I don't know which they are until after I've answered and made it sound like one of us is stupid.

To be honest I'm not sure how to say where I'm from. Suggestions please?

In the US, it's a habit within our own country to say city & state names together. There are lots of cities with the same name. I think nearly every state has a "Springfield". If we're out of state and someone asks us where we're from though, we usually just say the state if the city we're from isn't famous.

[huisheng]

Maybe "those Americans" assume people can tell they're American by detecting their accents. No offence intended. I just imagine how strange it can be if the response given is "Ok, but what is it?"

[muyongshi]

Ok so quick related story from yesterday....

Was on a ride with our cycling group and after lunch went to a tea house for a bit to enjoy the wonderful sunshine and I was tired of all the hello's I had been getting as it was and so forth. When we rode into the tea house (outdoor seating are that is) this one table starts yelling so how much 美元 do you charge for tea to the 老板 and some are yelling at me, "oh an American foreigner". I was in a pissing mood with these people at that point and I rudely told them I wasn't American, I was Russian at which point the just looked at each other, nodded slightly, saying oh Russian.... It shut them up as the just didn't know what to say. I am not Russian by the way...

[skylee]

This thread always reminds me of my own impression being a tourist overseas that westerners think "All Asians are Japanese" and almost without expection giggled behind / yelled at / greeted me with "konnichiwa".

The exception happened in a recent visit to Libya, where people said "nihao" to me.

[gougou]

To be honest I'm not sure how to say where I'm from. Suggestions please?

Just stick with the country. When I say I'm from Germany, people will also ask me where from exactly. Same I will do when I talk to others - even if they're from a country where I'd only know the capital.

[wushijiao]

Actually, a lot of Chinese sports fans know all the NBA cities,so it may not be that strange for them to ask you which city/state.

[roddy]

Similarly with the UK - when taxi drivers ask you which city in the UK, they are generally about to tell you which football team you support.

[Lu]

Met a foreign student the other day who obviously had answered the question before and had learned which way of answering worked best. I asked her where she was from, she said 'West Africa', and when I kept listening, 'Sao Tome and Principe. It's two islands.' If she had said this the other way around ('Sao Tome and Principe, two islands in West Africa'), she'd probably only get blank looks.

I suppose I also ask people 'Where in [country]' even if I barely know the capital, perhaps just in an attempt to gain a bit more knowledge. At the same time I am usually a bit annoyed when people ask where in NL I'm from and it turns out they only know Amsterdam (and that's not where I'm from), or not even that.

[huisheng]

Actually my point was some American cities are more known than the states in which they're located. As for Chinese, normally nobody will bother saying which province/city they come from except Beijing-ren and Shanghai-ren, especially the former likes to say "I'm from the capital of China -- Beijing!" as if it's something significant.