For the uninitiated, it can really be quite jarring how bluntly the Chinese talk about appearances and race, the generalizations and stereotypes they never bother questioning. I won't list examples here, but for those who think the Chinese only do this to other racial and ethnic groups, think again. They're just as blunt -- more so, even -- when talking about themselves.
From an article titled, "Listen up, guys! First impressions do count," about why Chinese men are unable to attract Western women:
Here is a piece of advice for Chinese men trying to land a date with a Western woman: Start looking in the mirror.
That is because Chinese men are physically less appealing than their Western counterparts and have more difficulty trying to attract foreign women, according to psychologist Zhang Jiehai from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
Jock-shock article? Humor website? Nope. Try China Daily.
One more:
Sports will make you masculine and can also work as a common interest between you and the woman, Zhang says.
Apart from sports popular in the West like rock climbing, bungee jumping and baseball, Zhang strongly recommends Chinese kungfu and taichi, aspects of Chinese culture in which many Western women are interested, to increase your charm.
I'll open this up for a vote: what should my response be?
POSTSCRIPT: There's a mention of Chinabounder within the article, a Western blogger who bragged about his sexual exploits with Chinese women in explicit detail and then got hunted down by a Chinese Internet lynch mob that turned into a real lynch mob, forcing him out the country. Then he returned with a book.
Well, here's an eyebrow-raising sentence from our friends at China Daily: "News agencies later reported that the blogger was actually a group of performance artists."
I applaud slowly, with one hand, bemused.
