As we were walking down the street - Moon, junior and I, with me holding junior’s hand - we presented the sight of a perfect family. We had picked up three year old junior, who is actually Moon’s cousin, from kindergarten and were waiting until her sister would get off work and take custody of him. The sight of us - foreigner guy, Chinese girl and a kid - attracted all types of looks ranging from surreptitious glances to giggling stares, and at one point a couple of excited street merchants gave the kid a free baloon as soon as they caught sight of us. The fact that the child’s appearance was completely Chinese rather than mixed blood seemed to throw in some confusion and at one time a shopseller, giving change to Moon, kept glancing at me and junior from the corner of her eye; back and forth, back and forth flickered her gaze, as if trying to judge whether or not there is blood relation between the two of us.

In the big cities, in which foreigners can be found, mixed couples are not a rare sight. The interesting point in my eyes is not what’s there, but rather what’s not there - nearly all of these mixed couples consist of a foreigner guy with a Chinese girl. Since as far as I could tell the Chinese (both men and women) find western women attractive, the only conclusion left to me is that western girls don’t like Chinese guys. How such a large gap between male-female and female-male preferences could exist seems odd to me.

Following is a story I’ve heard told by a Chinese woman who lives in Shenzhen. I think it’s interesting to see how this story, an amusing anecdote to Chinese, will simply not be understood by most foreigners (who don’t live in China) unless explained to them:

“We were having a meal at a restaurant with two foreigners, and asked them what dishes would they like to order. The first foreigner, who was relatively acquainted with Chinese cuisine, asked for “Gong Bao Ji Ding” ( some dish of chicken with peanuts). The second foreigner asked for a soup. When the “Gong Bao Ji Ding” arrived, the first foreigner pulled it over to his side of the table, said “ok this dish is mine” and started eating it all by himself. Then the other foreigner got his soup…”

The key points to understand the story are:
1. In a Chinese meal, typically all dishes are shared by everyone.
2. Soups in China are usually huge dishes enough for all the diners to share…