Say Cheese

20 May 2010 - A lot has been said about the Shanghai Expo, but here comes another warning. I read that foreign visitors are often grabbed by locals to take pictures with them. The big Expo is offering mainlanders, barely 5% of whom have been abroad, a rare opportunity to interact with people from other parts of the world. When watching performances from other countries at the Expo site, mainland visitors whisper about the color of the artists' hair, eyes and skin, as well as their body size. Most visitors do not speak English and turn to body language pointing at their cameras and them themselves. But maybe this is a match made in heaven, as the Chinese want to take the opportunity to get to know people from overseas, while most foreigners in China are keen to learn more about the Middle Kingdom.