I am a man who has a frequent problem with sunburn. Usually I prevent this by wearing a silly hat with a wide brim. My previous sun hat (a Panama hat I got in Puerto Rico) has been falling apart for some time now so I decided to switch to a new hat. Fortunately, hard plastic wide brimmed sun hats are a common in Vietnam and sign of your support for the global communist revolution in Laos. The Chinese though saw my new hat a bit differently. Instead of being a sign for my love of the united workers of the world losing their chains, my hat is a sign that my hypothetical wife is having hypothetical sex with other hypothetical men and was apparently quite funny to everyone in Changsha's airport. In Chinese 戴绿帽子, wearing a green hat, is a euphemism for a man's wife cheating on him. While this often doesn't come up it is this stigma around green hats is occasionally a problem for foreigners. Sometimes Boston Celtics, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, or weirdos who buy a hat because they saw a picture of Ho Chi Minh in the same hat will end up accidentally wearing a green hat in China, wondering why everyone thinks they are funny. I have also read stories online of foreign businessmen, and women, throwing Christmas parties in China or with Chinese getting in trouble because they tried to get everyone to wear green elf hats. I guess take my mistake as a lesson in what not to do in China or when throwing Christmas parties for Chinese.
2 Comments
Sharon
2/28/2017 10:41:42 pm
I can't believe it survived the whole trip! What a trooper...
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Jared Paul Miller
2/28/2017 10:48:58 pm
I guess that is the nice thing of hard plastic military hats, they are hardy.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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