Chinese encounters – weirdos and sweethearts

“What are the Chinese like?”

People keep asking me this question, and it’s impossible to answer it in one word. Some of the Chinese people I met were really nice, especially hostel staff, but also random people helping me out in the street. Others were impolite or even rude, mostly in queues or crowds. And a lot of them were just really weird, in all different kinds of ways. Strange fashion (young women wearing doll-like dresses and bows in their hair), weird habits (sleeping completely naked in a hostel dorm or clipping toe nails for 20 minutes while having a conversation), uncommon questions (“can I take a picture of you to share with my friends?” or “did you shower? Oh no that’s right, foreigners shower in the morning…”).

There are many stories to tell, but I will limit this post to the three encounters that stuck with me – the nicest one and the weirdest two.

The weirdest #1 – circled

Chinese tourists at the Yungang caves in Datong

Both of the following weird stories relate to the fact that Chinese people seem to have a rather strange fetish for Westerners. They’ll leave all social behaviour codes behind in order to acquire a photo of themselves posing with any Western person that happens to be in their proximity. I found myself to be the prey quite a lot of times.

It got particularly weird in Datong, while I was visiting the Yungang caves. I was resting on a bench at some point, minding my own business, looking at my phone, when suddenly I noticed that an old Chinese man had taken place next to me. I obviously didn’t mind and went on checking my facebook (or whatever I was doing). After a while, I looked up and saw a woman standing in front of us, taking a picture of both the man and me, who obviously seemed to be posing for the camera. Before I could even realize what was actually happening, I was surrounded by an entire Chinese family. Up to that point, none of them had talked to me or even made eye contact. One of the women then made a little boy sit next to me. He didn’t seem all too happy with the situation, but the woman (probably his mother), encouraged him to pose for the picture and even took his little hand and put it onto my arm. All of this happened still without any eye contact or speaking to me whatsoever.

The weirdness and awkwardness of the situation somehow completely paralyzed me; this was so far beyond any of my social references that I found myself in total ignorance of how to react appropriately. I felt like a living statue. After the photoshoot, I was finally asked something, however in Chinese, where was I from? From Belgium, I replied. They acknowledged my answer, said bye and left.

The weirdest #2 – favours

My turn to take a picture

After stepping on the overnight train that was going to take me all the way from Zhangjiajie to Nanning, a Chinese guy asked me if I would switch places with his daughter so that she could sit with him. It had become familiar to me by then: I had previously reunited friends and couples that way in trains and buses throughout China, so I wasn’t going to oppose myself to this family reunion either. But since this time I was asked to switch to a different train carriage, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to get in any trouble with that. Having talked to the train staff, the man assured me that everything was fine, and so I accepted.

The next day, it turned out not to be fine, when the conductor checked my ticket. I did my best to explain the situation in Chinese, but I didn’t understand a word of what he answered me. The guy sitting in front of me got involved, but didn’t speak any English either, so he decided to go and get his girlfriend to translate. She wasn’t really of any help though: every time she seemed about to say something, she just started giggling like a shy little girl instead. Eventually, the guy let me know through the translator app on his phone that I didn’t have to worry because the conductor was going to solve it for me. He seemed to be pretty happy with his contribution and looked at me in expectation. He showed me his phone once again, where a question appeared on the screen; would I want to teach some English now? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, because I had never even really had a proper personal conversation with this man. So now it seemed as if he had been waiting to build up some credit to be able to ask me that ‘service’. It didn’t exactly put me in the right mood, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I accepted.

What happened next, was rather unexpected. Suddenly, the guy had brought a young teenage boy, a little girl and another woman to come and sit in front of me. He seemed proud to have arranged them an English teacher. But first, most importantly, could I please pose for a picture with them? After the photoshoot, I decided I was entitled to take a picture of them too. This caused some chaos, since one of the women didn’t like that and tried to run away (see photo).

Time for English class, then. They all looked at me nervously, lost for words, when at some point the little girl asked me: “Are you teacher?” I replied and the mere fact that I did, which proved that she had managed to form a proper sentence in English, resulted in the entire family giving her high-fives for that accomplishment. There was something very impersonal about all of it; this was not about me as a person, I was only a tool, enabling them to test their knowledge. Annoyed by the situation, I decided to overload the boy with questions when he wanted to have a conversation for practice. He seemed all out of sorts, and after a while, I was finally asked if I wanted some time for myself. I confirmed that I did and they disappeared back to where they had come from.

The nicest – an unexpected night out

Chinese opera in Chengdu

It was early evening when I arrived at my hostel in Chengdu. After checking in and leaving my stuff in the room, I went and found a seat in the common area. The Chinese girl next to me started a conversation right away. Her English name was Joy, and she seemed very nice and outgoing. After 5 minutes she asked me if I had ever been to Chinese opera before. I said that I hadn’t, but would love to go.

“Now?” she asked.

“Eh, why not,” I said, and 10 minutes later Joy and I took the subway to the city centre. She turned out to be great company and we had loads of fun going to the Chinese opera, drinking lemonade, taking selfies and enjoying the show. We were just in time for the last subway back to the hostel after this very nice and entertaining night out.