Why I No Longer Mock People Who Ask Foreigners for Photos

Rainy-Day Reflections · Travel Essay I Will Never Again Mock People Who Take Photos with Foreigners

I Will Never Again Mock People Who Take Photos with Foreigners

In interviews with foreigners who had visited China, I used to hear one thing mentioned often: Chinese people like asking them for photos together.

My foreign-language teacher last semester also said that when he walked through Beijing, many people would stare at him. He found that very rude.

Later I saw many young people online—whether traveling in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou or encountering a foreigner in their own city—work up the courage to ask for a photo and then post a fashionable caption:

'Be a little bolder in life, so I finally summoned the courage to say: Can we take a photo together?'

The online narrative about 'finding the courage to ask for a photo'

Honestly, at the time I looked down on that behavior a little.

I thought it showed a lack of worldly experience. The person was not famous and might not be special in any way; you seemed to want a photo merely because they were foreign.

I have always thought it normal to take a photo with a celebrity you happen to meet.

But if the only reason for a photo was that someone 'looked foreign,' I used to wonder whether there was a little cultural insecurity behind it—whether, subconsciously, a foreign face was still treated as a rare trophy to show off.

I even equated this behavior directly with not having seen much of the world.

Looking back, that judgment was convenient and arrogant. I had never seriously asked why the person wanted a photo: was their excitement about admiration, or merely novelty, the desire to connect, and a rare experience in everyday life?

1 Passports, Distant Places, and Another Kind of Superiority

A very direct experience changed my mind: abroad, a foreigner asked to take a photo with me.

I have not been to the well-known Western European destinations that many Chinese travelers visit. The paperwork and process for a Schengen visa really are more troublesome, which is one reason I have avoided Western Europe. Instead, I prefer places that are visa-free or easier to enter and somewhat less traveled, such as Bosnia and Armenia. There are noticeably fewer Chinese visitors there.

Our passports are mocked a lot online. It is undeniably troublesome to obtain a Schengen visa, but some extreme remarks only reveal the speaker's ignorance and foolishness.

Traveling the world has never meant collecting visits to Western Europe. Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are all visa-free—aren't they wonderful vacation destinations? Brazil currently has a temporary visa-free policy, and I would love to experience Sao Paulo; Turkey is visa-free and offers an encounter with the mingling of Asian and European cultures. The Balkans, the Caucasus, and Central Asia have their own histories, religions, languages, and ways of life, all worth seeing for oneself.

The world is not a ranking of passports by their 'visa value.' Travel is not about proving where you can go, but about actually seeing those places.

In Armenia, I even thought in advance that if an ignorant teenager racially abused me, I would say:

'I can come to your continent. Are you able to come to mine?'

Looking back, that line also sounds rather superior. At the time, though, I thought that if someone really insulted me with racism, I would fight fire with fire and answer in terms they would understand.

Fortunately, the people we encountered along the way were quite kind. The malice I had imagined did not appear; instead there was warmth, curiosity, and smiling faces.

2 In Dilijan, I Became 'the Foreigner'

In Dilijan, for the first time in my life, someone asked to take a photo with me because I was a foreigner.

The Chinese people traveling with me had experienced this three times already on the trip. Locals greeted us warmly, asked our names, and invited us to take photos together.

There was no offense, no condescension, and no treating us as exhibits to be stared at. It was simple curiosity and goodwill: they rarely encountered faces from far away in their everyday lives, so they wanted to say hello, get acquainted, and keep a photo.

In that moment, my reasoning suddenly clicked into place.

For someone from a small city or a limited social circle, meeting a foreigner—especially someone of a different ethnicity—at home or while traveling can naturally feel novel. Taking a photo is normal too: a way to record a happy moment, perhaps use English learned but never spoken in daily life, and test one's courage.

When I was the person being asked for a photo, I realized I did not see the locals as culturally insecure or unsophisticated. I simply found them warm, and the encounter became a lovely travel memory.

If I can understand them this way, why was I unwilling to extend the same understanding to my compatriots?

3 Curiosity Is Not the Problem; Boundaries Matter

Of course, understanding why someone asks for a photo does not justify every behavior.

Staring at someone for a long time, photographing them without consent, surrounding them, jeering, or treating them as an exotic spectacle are still rude.

My teacher's discomfort at being stared at on the streets of Beijing is real and deserves respect.

But politely approaching someone, greeting them, and asking 'Can we take a photo together?' before taking a photo with their consent is entirely different from watching or secretly photographing them from afar.

What deserves criticism is not curiosity about foreigners, but the failure to respect boundaries. What deserves encouragement is not treating a foreigner as an accessory that signals status, but taking a step toward an equal, friendly exchange with a stranger.

Sometimes a photo together has no grand meaning. It might simply mark someone's first time speaking English to a stranger, overcoming social anxiety, or turning a sentence from a textbook into actual communication; it might also just be an ordinary but memorable chance encounter.

4 I Will Not Mock Them Again

I used to treat 'having seen more' as a source of superiority and found it easy to mock people who felt curious because they had seen less.

But after seeing a little more of the world, I feel that a broad outlook should not mean sneering at other people's sense of novelty. It should mean knowing that the world is vast and people's experiences differ greatly; you do not automatically judge someone from above for doing something you long ago came to take for granted.

I understand this behavior now.

If I see someone attacked for taking a photo with a foreigner again, I will defend them: if both people consent and are polite, there is nothing to mock.

The world is vast. What matters is not pretending that nothing ever surprises you. It is remaining respectful even when curious, and being willing, across countries and languages, to smile and ask: 'Can we take a photo together?' If the other person nods, take the photo together.

Note: Visa policies can change. Check the latest official information before traveling.