Friday, October 17

I found an old report by Rob Gifford about Phrase Book Helps China's Cops Prep for Olympics where he talks with Scott Simon about a couple of threads that run through the book:
One is that foreigners drink a lot. The other is that, if you believe this book, I think the perception is that every Western man, and especially Western reporters, is a sort of sexual predator who's after any Chinese woman he can get his hands on. 'Please, take your hands off that woman,' or 'Could you just leave that lady alone, please, and come along with me,' it gives us sort of an insight into maybe how the Chinese, or certainly the Chinese police, see Western men as behaving around women.

Simon says, "I wonder where they would have gotten that impression?" and Gifford responds, "I can't think." It's supposed to be funny, but it's a little annoying; it's not like Chinese men don't fool around with prostitutes.

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