Furry dog, I like to people watch as I’m aspiring to be an actress when I retire :D, but my daughter stopped me when she’s out with me. She thinks it’s rude. I think of it as a free activity for retiree people and I think people are interesting to watch. I rather have something to look at rather than look in general. I’m guilty of the staring or people watching myself.
Maybe they “admire” you for keeping yourself in such a good physical shape at your age and want to know what “secret weapon” you have to achieve this. (Just joking!)
I believe many behaviors of these FOBs could be considered as not only odd but also rude by most people here. (And likely they do not know about it.)
I felt like a caged animal.
This reminds me of what NYT columnist Thomas Friedman once said, “The trouble is, in China, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America, Britney Spears is Britney Spears.” :))
Couldn’t agree more. Truly obnoxious and pathetic.
Problem for China is that we produce both figures…
I don’t think not producing a Britney Spears is a problem for China, or if it is, I’m sure it’s a problem they don’t mind having. Same goes for Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber or any number of those talentless Disney manufactured teen idols who are just glorified trailer trash. In fact that goes for most of our celebs (not all) and pro athletes.
My point was placed that the U.S., in many instances, sets trend globally. Everything from bubbgum pop to technology, from hip hop to academia…
^ Sadly, often times the look as well (what kind of facial figures are considered as “attractive”.) - the look of non-minority only though because the non-minority as a group represents the wealthy and the powerful - so their look must be “more respectable/valued.”
Is there a word for this phenomenon in the branch of social science when people both in the culture A and in culture B by birth value the culture A over culture B?
In many countries in east Asian, it is said that traditionally, the whiter the skin color, the better looking a person is (esp. for a woman) just because the wealthy/upper class do not need to work long hours under the sun. Here, having the skin tanned is highly valued because it means they could manage to have more money and time to take vacations. But the idea behind them may be the same: worship those who are more or less in the upper class.
In Menlo Park, a town next to Palo Alto and close to Stanford, there is a Chinese restaurant that appears to make a good deal of its living via big white tour buses full of Chinese students. No blazers, lots of mobile devices.
Is that restaurant good, or somehow “more authentic” than other Chinese restaurants in the general area? (Yes, the bar for that is probably a lot higher in that general area than in many others.)
Was recently in Cambridge. There were lots of tourists (including myself) going through Harvard Yard, but the busloads of Chinese tourists were very numerous.
We did stop in at a Chinese restaurant that was midway between Harvard and MIT because the place was packed (I think more with students rather than tourists) and hardly any Anglos other than us. Good call.
Telltale sign of an authentic, (although not necessarily good) Chinese Restaurant is a cantonese/mandarin written menu on the wall. Often it is the more traditional authentic dishes (e.g. no general tso and hunan this and hunan that)…
Chinese menu may not be on the wall but it may be available on request. It is beneficial to initially visit with a Chinese person. I heavily rely on my ethnic co-workers to guide me towards proper ethnic food.
Restaurants that cater to Chinese tourists busses are generally not very good. If they have to depend on that type of business, that means they are used to dishing out bland and very not well made food, but rather to rush through the tourists and neglect the regular customers.
It’s called soft power.
Hegemony. Kind of at least. There’s sort of a connotation with it that it’s bad. It a communist word.
Or in pretty much every culture anywhere. and I think it’s ingrained in us that lighter skin is more attractive, not a conscious thought that dark skin means low class… I have a very silly sounding theory on it but if I announced it everyone would say it was the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard.
Not true. I have a client in the sunscreen space and I’ve done qualitative research around the globe (in 6 different countries) on this very topic, talking to women about sun care preferences, attitudes and beliefs. In some countries, especially China and India, the goal is to look whiter - which includes covering up from the sun and even using bleaching creams (which is sad, but that’s another topic). In some countries, such as France, there is a goal to look sun-kissed. And in some countries, such as Brazil, the goal is to get a deep, rich tan. The cultural significance of a tan varies considerably by country.
@pizzagirl While a country may fancy a tan, does not mean deep societal riffs, that rival our owns, exist around the color of ones skin. To be certain, one need only look at the poorest areas of Brazil, in the vast favelas of the cities, and see the most downtrodden are also the darkest. Everyone wants a tan–maybe, but no one wants to live a life of a person with dark complexion. Having lived in Brazil three times in my life, I know this for truth…
Around here, a lot of Chinese restaurants have a separate “Chinese menu”–in English–that you have to ask for. It has much more interesting food. We’ve also noticed that the people with the dim sum carts won’t show you the chicken feet if you aren’t Chinese.
^^ Reminds me of the final scene in a Chrismas Story. The dogs eat the turkey so they have to go to a Chinese restaurant, and at the table, the waiter lops off the head of a duck.
This continues to go further and further off topic, but what the heck. We often talk on here about common experiences of Jewish and Chinese families–it occurs to me that one common experience of those groups is being in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas day.