Disoccidented

Sometimes I walk behind two blonde people and they turn around and they are Asian, in fact, 99.9% of all blonde people I see here are Asian. However there are a lot of Caucasian models on billboards and ads, and so in some ways, you see a lot of white people. In other ways, you don't see many at all.

Once in Taibei, an African American guy walked by. I assume that he was American mainly because he was dressed like American, for all I know he could have been Canadian, English, Jamaican or African. This Taiwanese guy who was lounging on the street corner did this double take and said (in Chinese) "Whoa, a black guy!"

Today, subbing for a class, this kid started speaking to me in Chinese, and I said "I don't speak Chinese" which is half a lie, and half not. So he asked "Where are you from?" and I said "America." and he actually looked me up and down, with a head motion and everything, and said "You're an ABC?" and I said "No." and he said a "CBA" I don't know what that is, I'm guessing Canadian, and I said "No." He's the only person who's pushed it that far. American is good enough for most people, although some will simply assume that I was born in Taiwan and have come back. I have to say, Taiwanese people so far have been way more tactful about the whole "Where are you from?" thing than my 21 years of experience in America.

However, in talking to my roommate about his experiences, I realize that I don't stick out as much as he does, in that I don't get people running up to me trying to be my best friend because I'm visibly foreign. At the same time, I think most people get the general idea that I ain't exactly from around here, although my roommate did advance the intriguing theory that they do think I'm local, but just as he put it "evil."