Followed by Man on the Subway?

[Touchstone57]

Just thought I'd share a few weird experiences that happened to me in China. Bear in mind I am a man and have had strange advances from other Chinese men. 

 

1. A few months after I arrived in China I got off the subway during peak time in the evening, and I noticed a man walking extremely close to me and looking at me very intently. I thought nothing of it, as I am just a foreign and this is rush hour so there a lot of people here. But as I continued walking through the station (This is Peoples Square in Shanghai, a huge station), he seemed to be walking very close to me, and kept looking down at my...legs? Anyway, at this point I thought, am I being paranoid? I must misunderstand him.

 

So I pretended to stop and look at my phone to see what he would do, he kept on walking for a short while then circled around and was behind me. At this point I freaked out and started walking incredibly fast thinking I could lose him, as there are millions of people in the station during peak time and it should be easy. I went out of the station exit and thought yes! I've lost him, but somehow he managed to find me again. Then he started speaking in a scary childlike voice "Hello, what i your name?". I thought ohh! He just wants to practice English. But then he asked to go to private place, and then kept pointing at me and making various comments at what he admired below the waistline (you can guess). At which point I basically said "GTFO or I'll call the police". 

 

2. I was in a toilet cubicle in a shopping center, and a man in the next cubicle climbed on his toilet to get a good look at me. Fortunately I was fully dressed and just checking me phone. Still I was like "WTF!". He seemed quite scared and said he was "changing his clothes".

 

3. I took a taxi home after a few beers, and thought everything was going well, and I was happy that I could manage a full conversation in Chinese with the taxi drive. He started talking about how long foreigners noses are (mmkay?) and how much liked them, and then he started asking me about my <local slang> and how big it was. At this point I really didn't understand what he was saying as he was using some slang from a dialect (he said not pu tong hua). He then turned around in his seat to point somewhere..... then he was continually asking me about how many foreigners I have "seen". I just told him we don't like this topic, though he was particularly interested in Africans. 

 

Has anyone else experienced anything at all like this? Bear in mind I am a man, but I found all of these experiences pretty creepy. I though these experiences where the exception and not common for Chinese men but once it happens so often...

 

I have one friend say he has similar happen to him whilst using public bathrooms in China. 

[kdavid]

I almost always get stared at when standing at the urinal.

 

It's also not uncommon for the more *ahem* uncouth Chinese to ask about penis size.

[Demonic_Duck]

I've never had any comments about penis size from strangers on the street, but I've had the odd comment on my nose (one old guy on the subway told me I had a beautiful nose, and a girl where I used to work once asked to touch it). There was also a guy who started harassing me when I was with my girlfriend at the time, he kept saying "hello, how are you?" and exposed his chest. He followed for a short distance but not far enough to cause significant alarm (it was in a shopping mall anyway).

[Alex Whiteman]

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

There was this little man in his fifties that showed up at a gym I go to. I think he was working there. . . doing massages.
He'd settle in the middle of the changing room using the massage bed as a table for his laptop.
. . .but the point is that each time I got there he'd try to start conversation with me and "help me" with stuff I didn't need help with.
He was very insistent regardless my deliberate unfriendlyness and would continue insisting with questions and invading my personal space as I was changing. . . all the while being ridiculously "sweet" in tone of voice and body language.

One day - I was changing clothes - he came up with his usual blabber. . . and tried to caress my shoulder and chest, twice in a row.
I got angry and asked one of my Chinese buddies what was up with him.
My buddy got nervous and left quickly but the old git stopped.
I don't think I ever saw him again after that incident.

Maybe he was just uneducated or wanted a fist to the face and compensation money?

[Kelby]

OP, yout taxi situation reminds me of an encounter I had not that long after I first arrived in Zhengzhou. I was in a garden looking at the Chinese Bonsai (penjing?) and had a man approach me, tell me a little bit about the plants, comment on my height, and then ask blatantly about my crotchal region. As I made my way out, and we went to separate ways, he got a good handful of my junk as he just casually reached out for a feel.

I'd hardly call this a distinctly Chinese experience though (other than the penjing) as I think this is equally as likely to happen in any big city. It's one of my favorite war stories though, especially because after telling my roommate about the incident and making sure I wasn't too weirded out he gave a hardy "Welcome to China!"

[dnevets]

Reminds me of a story I heard from a friend and colleague of mine in China. He was in a public bathroom, at the urinal. A Chinese guy came in and stood at the next one along from him. After having a good look the guy decided to just reach over and make a grab for the family jewels. As you might expect, my friend's response was WTF. The Chinese guy responded with "It's ok, I'm gay!".

[Baron]

Similar stories: overly-friendly taxi driver grabbed a friend's package while he was in the passenger seat. Just curious about the size, he said. Young naive german boy on his first big holiday outside Europe was treated to an under-table crotch squeezing by a policeman, of all people.

 

Doesn't seem so bad for ladies, apart being knowingly informed that foreign girls are all very 开放, generally by drunk middle age gentlemen. Better than a crotch-squeezing though.