One of my fears coming for coming to South Africa, is what is understanding the stereotypes and judgements that would be placed upon me. After spending over 2 weeks here in South Africa, and interacting with teachers, students, and strangers on street I'm soon learning about perceptions of me - a Chinese-America.
I was in the township and the little kids (younger than age 5) came up to our parked car and started chanting "China! China!" when they saw me and then proceeded to demonstrate their karate skills in the road.
I was Lelapa an ethnic African restaurant, out of the house of this wonderful woman, and one of the waiters/cooks greeted me with a "Nihao." I was surprised and startled, and responded with a "Nihao." ("Hello" in Mandarin Chinese.)
While downtown, walking from the train station to the aquarium, we stopped at a street vendor's stand, specifically a Rastafarian stand. The shop owners asked if I was Chinese or Japanese (at least they asked), and then said "Ohio." (Hello in Japanese.) I corrected him with a "Nihao."
On my last day of the Primary Workshop, my students prepared posters for the presentation, and they practiced their parts for the presentation. Afterwards, I still had a few minutes left, and I opened up the floor for any questions they had about me, teaching, the United States... They asked me if I liked Cape Town, if I tried any of the cultural foods, if I knew the president of South Africa, if I missed my family. I compared Cape Town to San Francisco. I told them about my experience with Lelapa but I did not know the names of the foods. I did not know the name of South Africa's president, but they told me Zuma and their opinion of him - which was a range. I also told them about my younger brother and sisters, and also my husband.
They were really shocked that I was married. Their first question in response was "why aren't you wearing a skirt?" I didn't understand their meaning of the question, so I responded with "well it is cold here and I am warmer in pants." The females in the class proceeded to explain to me about traditions of married Xhosa women, including wearing hair/head coverings. What an eye opener.