Clever Turtles

I went out shopping with my Canadian friend the other day at 西直门(Xi Zhi Men). Important to note here is that my Canadian friend is black.

The thing is that if you walk around in Beijing, being a foreigner, you get lots of glares and stares from Chinese people, because sadly, most of the Beijing population haven't seen a 老外 (Lao Wai) before in their in entire life. Thus the very very awkward and childish staring at foreigners as if they were Marshmellow Men is quite common. I got used to it after a while whilst I am out with foreign dudes and dudettes, but yesterday was the first time me and R. went together to a predominantly Chinese shopping area.

The experience was some what different here. Whereas being out with 'white' peeps, the looks they get are often full of curiosity and amazement. However, being out with R., people had this shocked and scared look in their eyes. As we walked around, I heard people whisper things like “哇，我的吗”(Oh My God), “天啊，这人怎么这么黑”(Oh My God, this guy is so black), “快来看，怎么这么黑暗！”(Come look, see how black this guy is), which were 'OK', but I got pretty pissed when a girl on the street who was walking towards us, actually jumped up and made a tiny screeching sounds when she saw my friend. She was that scared. Ridiculous. Or when the screaming shop sellers stop in the middle of their sentence, when they see my friend walking by. It was really ridiculous to see. One minute they are like a non-stop rambling machine and the next moment they go dead silent.

I don't think Chinese people are racist, although they come off like that initially (my Chinese colleague was like: "Black people, one look at them and you just know there is something wrong with them....really, you cannot trust them. Better stay far away from them."), but it's just their stupid ignorance that they haven't been exposed to foreign cultures yet. Instead, they all have been biased by this outdated idea that white people are intelligent and rich and black people are all from ghettos and thus are ill-educated.

I sincerely hope that the Olympics and the continuous rise of China into the global market will eventually educate the majority of the Chinese people, because, although I know it is not their fault, I can get so angry and annoyed by this ignorance.