I remember sitting at the iron
picnic tables outside the
Portman in
Shanghai, waiting for my friends to come out of the supermarket and seeing all these old
lao wai with their young wives, and even though I know that it's none of my business, and even though I believe that people can choose who they
marry and I am happy for them- STILL, for some strange reason, I was totally enraged and am every time that I encounter couples such as these and even now as I am writing this my fingers are shaking with rage on the keys, thinking about it makes me so mad...
Why is this so? Why do I get mad when I go to bars and see fat old guys in suits dancing to '80's music with young girls. Going to some expat bars in Shanghai can be really revolting. I remember one night going to an expat bar with two of my (female)overseas Chinese friends. Before we even got into the bar, the foreigners outside on the street are whistling at my friends and trying to pick them up. My friend surprised them by yelling out loudly "fuck you, pervert!" and they, embarrassed, went to find some more amiable company. Once we got in the bar, my friends purposely spoke English loudly so that they wouldn't be confused with the "waitresses".
This is all slowly changing- there are a lot more young people from other countries going to China these days, people who know about the language and the culture to a far greater extent than their counterparts in previous generations. You have to remember that in the old days (25 years ago) there was little contact between China and the rest of the world. I have friends who are married to Americans and Canadians not because of a passport but because of LOVE and that to me is a big advance. You have to remember that even today, outside of places like Beijing Shanghai and Guangzhou, China still is still largely an underdeveloped third world country and will take some time to become modern, still give people credit, there are big advances all the time and I think that eventually once the country becomes modernized, the "Passport Whore" will be largely a thing of the past.