And you thought you were stared at in the US

[iajaffe]

I have been walking around Hong Kong and China the last week...lunting, like you do.....and I have been stared at like the bearded lady. Now, I grant that I am at least 6" taller than anyone and I have red hair, but it is the pipe that causes the ruckus. People stare at me like they have never seen a person smoke a pipe before. And then a coworker (local) confirmed that he had never seen a pipe before; let alone a westerner smoking one.
As if I didn't stick out enough?

 

[Chasing Embers]

If that's you in the profile pic, I don't think it's the pipe. :rofl:

 

[iajaffe]

It is only a SLIGHT exaggeration.

 

[kiel]

People love to look at "Westerners" in China. When I first arrived I could feel everybody's eyes on me, but after 8 years I hardly notice anymore.
What parts of China are you visiting?

 

[brian64]

If that's you in the profile pic, I don't think it's the pipe.

It is only a SLIGHT exaggeration.

LOL
I don't know...you add a pipe to that and it does make it even much stranger. Especially in China.

 

[andystewart]

That's a very funny mental image!

 

[mso489]

Well now, I think there's more going on than meets the eye. I have been to Hong Kong once, but I'm no area expert. Yes, the Chinese do notice Westerners, although Hong Kong as a former British Crown Colony isn't exactly virgin territory. Pipes are not common, so yes, there is a sideshow effect with that, plus a tall red-headed guy smoking one. There's another undercurrent. The Brits imposed the opium trade on the Chinese even engaging in the opium wars to enforce their market for opium in China. The Chinese were humiliated and still are horrified by this intrusion by a foreign drug cartel. So though a tobacco pipe is not an opium pipe, I think to the long memory of the Chinese people, especially Hong Kong people who are not so regimented and isolated from open historical discussion, being a port city, and still being burdened with levels of addiction and drug trade, a pipe might not be an altogether happy sight.

 

[phil67]

Hell, I also get stared at a lot here in the U.S. while sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe.

Then again, I'm not really at all sure if it's the pipe, or that I'm wearing nothing but my Stetson Cattleman hat and Spider Man underwear.

 

[tbradsim1]

I got stared at smoking my pipe one time but finally realized my Pants were unzipped. :rofl:

 

[mso489]

... and in that case, were people frowning or smiling?

 

[iamn8]

How'd you know I thought people were watching me?!?! Are you watching me watch people watching me?!?! They can see me through my television and the cameras on my computers... sometimes I sit completely and utterly still for hours on end so that They think their monitors have frozen. Can you see me now?!? Which finger am I holding up?

 

[agnosticpipe]

Just tell them that you can trace your heritage back to Noble House. They'll either give you stuff, or kill you. Exciting times indeed! :lol:

 

[davet]

Nobody watching me in my tinfoil wallpapered room while I'm wearing my space blanket poncho :nana:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Which finger am I holding up?

That's your pinky Nate. Try again. :mrgreen:

 

[jacks6]

Nate, we all know you're watching everyone on your street with your doorbell ringer thing.

 

[deathmetal]

...which was made in China. Wake up, sheeple!!1!

 

[jerwynn]

My mom, intrepid world traveler, god rest her soul, visited China not too long after Nixon's illustrious visit... she and a friend of hers. The decided they wanted to attend The People's Democratic Republic of China's People's Democratic Opera/House etc. At the intermission, they needed a trip to the "powder room" and entered to find ca 30 or 40 sloped holes in the floor with raised tiled bricks on either side of the holes for feet. No partitions, no doors, no rails, and not any other caucasian/American women within a million miles. Well, she was indeed intrepid and figgered when you gotta go, you gotta go, and so she and her traveling companion did, and the rest of the many women in the restroom ALL stopped and watched, for at least a few seconds anyway. I'd rather have them stop and watch me smoke a pipe.(and not in the women's room, for clarification.)

 

[mayfair70]

No one stares at me on the porch. All my clothes look like aluminum siding.

 

[only5t]

I am from nanjing China.I think they stared at you just because few people smoke pipes in China.when I smoking pipe outside,there is always someone stare at me,or ask me about what kind of tobacco i smoking. :D

 

[amphora]

I have been walking around Hong Kong and China the last week...lunting, like you do.....and I have been stared at like the bearded lady. Now, I grant that I am at least 6" taller than anyone and I have red hair, but it is the pipe that causes the ruckus. People stare at me like they have never seen a person smoke a pipe before. And then a coworker (local) confirmed that he had never seen a pipe before; let alone a westerner smoking one.
As if I didn't stick out enough?

Lol. I know the feeling. Try smoking a pipe as a Westerner in a smaller city or town in Japan. It's probably even worse than what you describe. They stare at me either way, with mouths frequently wide open in astonishment, as if I'm an alien that just stepped off of a spaceship. So I figure 'what the hell' as I light up. :lol:
In the bigger cities, Japanese people pretty much ignore Western foreigners, because they are a more common sight.