I knew that the continual jokes and come-on lines were usually in good humor and that these men were rather harmless. I also remember being constantly harassed in parts of France and Italy while I studied abroad as a twenty-one year old American. My parents had taken me to rural Mexico many times as a white-haired little girl and I remember the kids chasing me and trying to touch my hair. I have traveled to many places that had never seen a blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned person before. But after a few hours of the penetrating stares, I felt like some kind of caged animal at the zoo and I buried my head deep inside my pillow and tried to hide. At first I smiled back or even waved hello from the close quarters of my car window (people drive insanely close together in India!). The stares were not meant to be rude yet I felt their eyes taking me in deeply and penetrating my soul.

It was the most uncomfortable feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life. Every single person for eleven long, unending hours not only looked but stared at my long, dirty-blond hair. Last year, I was rudely awakened by the intensity of the stares surrounding me for an eleven hour drive outside of Delhi. Thankfully I had experienced this curiosity before. Thus, looking “different” in China whether it be skin color, hair color, eye color or size, is an anomaly that for some reason simply fascinates the Chinese people and invites them to take a look. Occasionally, you will see a Chinese with dyed red, blond or even blue hair. In a country of 1.3 billion in which over 91% of the population is Han (or ethnic “Chinese”), any variation in hair color from the standard black pretty much sticks out like a sore thumb. My blonde messy hair was discovered under my cap. For the next ten minutes, I posed and took pictures with all my new friends. As I climbed up on to the Wall for the first time, I was accosted by a herd of twenty Chinese hikers who nearly fell over when they saw me. You stand out but not necessarily in a way you would like or want to.įor those who have been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember this picture above of me with my newly made Chinese friends on the Great Wall series.

Your hair is a funny color one that some people have never seen. Yet once you get on a plane and fly far away to a different place such as China, everything changes. You can easily walk down the street and blend in anonymously. You see here in Minnesota, we have a strong Scandinavian heritage and many of us are blond and blue-eyed, fairly tall and hearty looking. It wasn’t until I began to get off the beaten path a bit more in my travels and become more adventurous, that I began to experience the odd uncomfortable feeling off being “different” from everyone else. Have you ever traveled somewhere where it was utterly impossible for you to fit in? It is an experience that any avid traveler will face at some point in their travels and honestly, it is an important life lesson that I found truly fascinating and insightful.

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