At a lot of the best tourist attractions in Hong Kong (like Repulse Bay, below), you can find many Asian tour groups who are visiting the area. Many Japanese, Koreans, and particularly people from "The Mainland" (China proper) like to travel in tour groups. According to the people I work with, many of whom have relatives on the mainland, Hong Kongers used to be the more affluent, often sending money to their mainland relatives to help support them. Since China has opened to more trade, there is a new affluence in China, and an new interest in travel, particularly to Hong Kong since it is not so far fetched from mainland China, culturally speaking. So they come in droves - - the newly wealthy of all ages, but the older tourists in particular like to travel in groups, and many mainlanders have never seen Western kids, particularly light-headed ones.
Anyhow, whenever we see them, they want to touch my kids - - particularly their hair, and particularly in the summer when their hair turns very blond. The almost always want to pose in photos with the kids.
Now, imagine you are an expat parent from the USA with very little understanding of the culture. And now, throw in the mix that complete strangers are wanting to touch your kids, hug them, pose for photos with them, etc. And you can imagine, given the language barrier, a nice Chinese (or Korean or Japanese or Vietnamese, etc. etc.) person saying in their language "Oh, you're so cute, we've never seen a Western kid before, we need to prove it to Aunt Jane, please let us take photos with you!" And of course the kids don't understand what they're saying, and I don't understand what they're saying, so then someone actually reaches out and grabs your kid's arm to bring them over into the photo, then your kid gets upset, and then mom is about to kill the other person...
To say it is unnerving at first would be a complete understatement!
We have gradually gotten used to it, particularly since a friend of mine taught me how to keep my nerves under control. Whenever they ask (the more friendly ones ask, the less friendly ones do not...) or simply begin to pose with my kids for a photo, I make sure I take a photo of THEM at the same time! I don't want the photo, but if anyone tries to grab my kid, I'll have the proof in the camera.
You know what? I've never needed the proof, and Jessica and Christina have even started to smile for them and enjoy the whole strangeness of it!
Here we are with two nice lady strangers. The boy on the left is Luke DeWitt, our cousin who was visiting from Austin.
I sometimes wonder if Jessica and Christina are in their blog!
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