JISHOU, HUNAN — I should go to bed, but I have to share this joke a Chinese friend told me. I swear I did not make this up.
“You know the problem with Western food? You eat it, and an hour later you’re hungry again.”
Good night, folks. You’ve been a great audience.
You know, I’ve heard that line a million times. I wonder where they learn this stuff… is there a required “Western Stereotypes 101″ course in Chinese universities? And on a similar note, why do Chinese kids call out “laowai” or “waiguoren”? Do their parents teach them this? Do they learn in in their textbooks at school?
Humm…. what goes around comes around. LOL
Of course, half the joke is that Americans have said the same thing about Chinese for as long as I can remember.
As for the “laowai” or “waiguoren” remarks, I get a lot of them here in western Hunan, where westerners are in short supply. A white person is a media celebrity here. You just get used to it after awhile. People stare, students want to shyly test their English and ask for photos with you, and little kids run to their parents to report the strange sighting of a white man walking the streets in the flesh, instead of on TV.