Chinese people think every western men with beard are muslim or arab!

[Alessi]

Hi people,

I'm an Italian and i run business in Ningbo and Yiwu.

I have been living here since 2013.

I want to talk about Chinese stereotyping.This really annoys me.

I like to grow beard, this is my style and i like it.

Many Chinese call me "Arab" or "Muslim" or some say I look like Xinjiang people just because of I grow beard and i have long wavy hair.I'm hardly trying to ignore it.They don't ask " where are you from? ", they directly say " Arab, muslim or how many wife do you have 4 or 5 "

Is there anyone get same stereotyping from Chinese?

Btw, if there are some Middle eastern/Arab/Muslim friend please do not offend by what i said.I don't want to insult or discriminate race, religion or nationality.

Anyway, i'm sorry about my broken english, i'm not a native english speaker.

Alessi

[Johnny20270]

Thats life mate. Happens everywhere in the world unfortunately. 

[Lu]

Sounds like 1) with a beard and long hair you look, to Chinese people, more like a Xinjiangnese/other muslim than like a white foreigner and 2) many Chinese have stereotypes about muslims. You can't really change 2), so you need to either lose the beard (and get a different set of stereotypes) or accept that you get asked these stupid questions. You can just laugh about it afterwards, or perhaps you can think up some good witty replies to shut them up.

[stapler]

I have dark brown hair, green eyes and a beard. If you don't have blonde hair and blue eyes I don't think you'll be able to grow a beard and not be considered a Muslim. Only in China do people suspect I'm not European. I just fully embrace my new identity as a Xinjiangren/Iranian when in China.

[Angelina]

It's not only you, there are thousands and thousands of Muslims in Yiwu. Probably, Chinese people living there have met many Muslims. 

[roddy]

Best thing to do: 

 

All Taxi-Drivers: "Hey, you must be Arabic!"

You: "No, I'm from Italy. All Italian men have beards."

 

Two years later

 

All Taxi-Drivers: "Hey, you must be Italian. How much does a Ferrari cost?"

 

Anyone else have an easily stereotyped-appearance? I got mistaken for Uighur once in a Harbin cab, but apart from that I don't recall anything. 

[maomao2014]

Chinese people have a certain stereotype for people from different countries. However Asian people in other continents are always asked whether from Japan or China. 

[Angelina]

The problem is that you can pass for an Arab and you live in cities where most foreigners are Arabs, so it's much worse than usual. It's like blonde people in Harbin. I am sure they have their stories about everyone asking them about life in Russia. 

 

I am starting to have identity issues   Chinese people have mistaken me for an Italian, Turkish, Uighur, Indian, Arab, French, Korean, Spanish, Greek, Ukrainian, Iranian. Then I went out with some Brazilian people (while in China) and they all thought I am one of them. 

[prateeksha]

Angelina you do look like a super fair Indian though

[Angelina]

I met a Tibetan girl who used to live in 'India', she said the same. 

[Demonic_Duck]

I have a classmate from Denmark who's half Han Chinese by birth. People joke that he looks like a 新疆人, although his skin colour is as white as most western Europeans.

 

It's all good. Own it, maybe make a joke or two about it, because unfortunately, there's not much else you can do about it. People will stereotype based on appearance. Back when I didn't wear glasses and the Big Bang Theory was at its most popular, Chinese people used to say I looked like Sheldon, because I'm a skinny, tallish white guy. In return I just said they looked like Jackie Chan (whether male or female).

[Alessi]

Actually, i always have a special answer for who stereotypes me.

Me: Ni Hao

Taxi driver: Alaboooo, alaboooooo

Me: Ting bu dong

Taxi driver: Ni shi Alabo

Me: Ni shi Re ben ren

Taxi driver: !!!!!!!!

[GaHanna]

The horror! I get the "are you American?" in a taxi on my way to a bar (near the American consulate). Horror, I tell you!

[maomao2014]

I think people have certain level of face blindness to people from other race.

 

Recently the picture of an English newspaper was circulated on the internet. The newspaper reported the the story that Jackie Chan's son was arrested, but put a TaiWan singer Leehom Wang's picture.

[Lu]

The horror! I get the "are you American?" in a taxi on my way to a bar (near the American consulate). Horror, I tell you!

I get that *all* *the* *time* in Taiwan. Sometimes they don't even ask but just continue with further questions: do you often go back to the US? (Me, confused look [while knowing exactly what he meant]: the US? No, I've been once, but no plans to go now. Taxi driver: [confused look] Me: I'm not American.) Many Taiwanese only have three, sometimes four, countries in their worldview: Taiwan, China, the US = the West, and possibly Japan.

Maomao: a Dutch newspaper once printed a picture of Liu Xiaobo, with underneath that this was Nobel Peace Prize winner Hu Jintao.

[Angelina]

Maomao: a Dutch newspaper once printed a picture of Liu Xiaobo, with underneath that this was Nobel Peace Prize winner Hu Jintao.

 

 

Was this a respectable newspaper Lu? Did you contact them?

[Guest realmayo]

(Even respectable newspapers make mistakes.)

(Especially for captions.)

[Angelina]

On topic, this week two Chinese people tried to guess my ethnicity. One was shouting: 韩国人，韩国人！The other one politely asked me if I was Russian. Russian, Korean, 差不多了。

[Lu]

Was this a respectable newspaper Lu? Did you contact them?

De Volkskrant, one of the better Dutch newspapers. I didn't contact them. Another, even more respectable, newspaper (NRC) makes similarly stupid mistakes, and for a while I emailed them every time I saw one. If the subject was still in the news, they'd make the same mistake the next day. I stopped trying. (But yes, even respectable newspapers make mistakes.)

[Angelina]

Don't give up!