From the first moment I stepped off the plane onto Chinese soil, the differences between America and China were obvious. In America, the population is an ever changing mix of nationalities and ethnicities. China, however, is a largely homogenous population lacking in diversity, because of this my brown hair, pale skin, and blue eyes stood out easily in the crowd. In restaurants, on the subway, at touristy locations people openly stared, discussing us in loud voices, many talking photographs. If our group is posing all together, people will out their phones and start taking their own photos. With China lacking in terms of diversity, many Chinese people have never seen or rarely see foreigners or as we are called in Chinese ‘WaiGuo Ren’.
As a result, some people will have their children stand next to us for a photo, others run after us asking for us to pose with them and their friends. One day a friend and I were exploring the lake on campus when a tour group came upon us, for the next fifteen minutes or so we took countless pictures with preteen girls smiling and holding up peace signs.
When I first arrived in China, this phenomenon fascinated me and I wasn’t bothered by people taking my photo. As time progressed, however it began to grow irritating for people to openly talk about you and take photos without your permission. If you asked them to stop they often laugh and ignore you.
By this point in the trip, I have adapted to this fascination and no longer resent it. Some of my best memories were directly caused by the WaiGuo Ren effect. Once when traveling back to Beijing via overnight train, I was brushing my teeth when a young boy of about 7 burst through the door, brandished his finger, yelled “WaiGou Ren”, and ran away. Funny moments like this have been scattered throughout my time here in China. From small children staring is shock to old men yelling out “hello” as you go by, life in China for a foreigner transforms one into something similar to a small time celebrity.
(We had to ask a man to stop taking our photo when posing for this.)