curious?

[Scoobyqueen]

AS ABOVE

[liuzhou]

Hard to imagine they would invade privacy.

There is no privacy! My neighbours know exactly who and how many people have visited me this week and how long she stayed. They know and regularly discuss how many beers I have drunk today (something I don't know). They miss nothing!

Very, very nosy.

[roddy]

Reminds me of something that happened my first year in China. The accommodation for the foreign teachers was overlooked by that for the Chinese staff. One lunchtime (we had three hour lunches) I'd been sitting out on the balcony, finished a book I was reading, then went back down to the office. Ten minutes later one of the Chinese teachers walked in and said brightly "I hear you finished your book. Was it good?"

[liuzhou]

Then there are the supermarket basket inspectors. They peer into your basket to see what the crazy foreigner buys.

Twice I have had people move things in my basket because they wanted to see what was beneath the top item.

[renzhe]

The taxi drivers seem to be very interested in how much money I earn, how much money my parents earn, how much money my grandparents earn....

But the best was a guy in Wuxi who hadn't seen a foreigner before, so he walked up to me, went around so he could see better, leaned into my face and stared. Just stood there and stared, then he went around to the other side and stared from there (in case it was very different). Generally, I find the staring to be the most unusual.

[liuzhou]

He only stared? You must be very uninteresting.

I've had my hair touched to check if it was real - till I slapped him. I've had people stare at me so closely I could smell the duck egg congee they had for breakfast.

The second most common greeting around here is "Where are you going?" OK, I know it's just a social pleasantry, but they really want to know. Considering that I am walking in the direction of my flat, you would think they would work it out.

But the one which really annoys me still is when I say that I can't really join you tonight for another boring evening in a crap bar because, quite frankly, I've had a better offer. And they demand to know her name and phone number!

[renzhe]

He only stared? You must be very uninteresting.

I guess he was intimidated. People often ask my girlfriend all the juicy questions until they realise that I understand them, then they stop.

[Asiasy]

when there`re more foreigners, the curiosity would decline

[Meng Lelan]

If you look in Lonely Planet travel guides to China from the 1980s you will see warnings about "staring squads".

Very common in Beijing when I was there in the 1980s - crowds of locals would gather around me wherever I went, if I even stopped to look at something on sale or ask for directions. One time I attracted a crowd of 100 customers in a department store when I stopped to sign something to my Chinese deaf friend, and the police had to come break it up.

This doesn't happen as much in Beijing in recent years though.

Expect lots of questions about how much you make, how much things cost in the US, etc seems like Chinese males are very interested in that topic these days.

Chinese here in the US seem less curious, I guess out of acculturation reasons.

I do get questions about why I divorced three years ago.

[renzhe]

Yeah, it's just the novelty factor.

In Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, the biggest problem was people trying to sell me stuff. Seeing a foreigner was no big deal (except for some children).

But in smaller places, they were genuinely interested. Like, the whole restaurant stops eating and looks at me passing down the street. Surreal feeling, took some getting used to. I went to the traditional market in the centre of Wuxi, and didn't hear any Mandarin spoken in the whole place. There, it was really unusual to see a foreigner.

[Loriquero]

Guys, there's one top way to know about chinese curiosity... Go to whatever place you want by the SLOW train, in the CHAIRS, just like anybody else...

That was my trip, from Beijing to Shanghai... almost 24 hours of genuine chinese curiosity and all kind of questions...unforgetable experience for me...

[dalaowai]

I found that the higher the income group has a lower curiosity level.

For example, living in an 1800 RMB a month apartment, everyone nosed around. Whenever I went to visit my wife's grandparents in an old complex, people would openly stare and ask questions.

On the other hand, when I lived in a 4500 RMB a month apartment, my neighbours didn't acknowledge my existence.

[Quest]

This is in Boston, one day a Chinese lady, who I didn't and still don't know or where she lived, came knocking on my door telling me the cops were about to tow my car on another street. I was like, how the hell dyou know that's my car or where I live?

My Chinese friends do also ask each other about grades and salaries. I was gonna say it's a legacy of the cultural revolution, when everyone snooped on each other, but I think it happens in Taiwan as well.

It's interesting that I just read an article/complain from the Chinese in China that the Americans are too nosy and 多管闲事 in China, such as blocking vechiles that are driving in the bicycle lane, and helping FLG or boycotting China for Darfur etc..

[Entropy_Rising]

I get the impression that they're curious in all the wrong ways. They'll be super nosy about your private life but (anecdotal reference warning anecdotal reference warning) from my experience teaching a swarm of 16 - 18 year olds in the hinterlands of China they never once displayed any intellectual curiosity about life in other countries or other worldviews. The education system hammered into them the idea that all that matters in life as a young person are the god damn answers to the gao kao. They would ask me lots of shallow dumb questions about American pop culture - not just any American pop culture but pop culture from 10 years ago, zuoyou. Backstreet boys and stuff. It was so disappointing for me. That many students, that many teaching-hours, and not a single interesting, controversial, thoughtful, or provocative question that I didn't have to doggedly coax out of them. One oblique reference to my "nüpengyou" however would send them all into a piranha frenzy about my private life.

Granted youths are like that all over the world but I do recall that in American working on a much smaller scale I would still get a vastly better "thought provoking questions per students" ratio then when I was in China.

[Loriquero]

Yeah, and when the traffic lights are red to the cars, but they try to go through the street, my reaction is walk deliberately to the middle of the street blocking their way... The staring session after that is very satisfactory

[BrandeX]

The north sounds like a strange place. I exist almost entirely unnoticed every day here. One of the benefits I guess of living in a city with several thousand foreigners.

[aimei]

The first question my Chinese teacher in Beijing asked me was how much money my parents made. They also seem to be obsessed with how much things cost in the US, and the grades you make. A couple people asked my boyfriend (who is a bigger guy, but not overweight) if most people in the US were as fat as him. As for the stares, the further you are from the city center, the more looks you get. We first lived way on the outskirts on Beijing (there were actually farms a couple blocks from our apartment building) and we got lots of stares and of course people constantly yelling "hello!" (as if they were the first person to ever think of yelling that at a foreigner.) Later we moved to the Houhai area, and nobody ever looked twice at us.

[studentyoung]

I exist almost entirely unnoticed every day here. One of the benefits I guess of living in a city with several thousand foreigners.

Hehe. That’s because you’re in Guangzhou, I think. We Guangzhou people don’t care who you’re, where you’re from, as long as you live, or even work in this city. And Guangzhou people even don’t have enough spare time to do a research on someone else’s background, because it’s usually considered as a task for this one’s parents-in-law-to-be. Hehehehehehehehe.

Hehe. Anyway, just hope you can keep enjoying your days in Guangzhou.

Cheers!

[HerrPetersen]

I also suffered a "staring attack" in Shanghai. It was in a bus which people use to get to the big supermarkets. So a bus with usually no foreigners in them. One guy looked into my face for 10 minutes or so, without ever looking away. Eventually I said hi to him. He smiled, said something I didnt understand and kept on staring at me for the rest of the bus drive.

But in defence for the Chinese people I would like to add: Whenever I saw a European person running around in places where you would not expect them I could kind of not prevent myself to also look a little and ask myself what kind of person he/she is. Don't know if I qualified for the staring squad.

[Senzhi]

I just feel like Brad Pitt bying his beer in the local Da Zhong. Every day.