Being a Foreign Woman in China and Japan
The conventional wisdom for the issue of female laowai in China is that finding a relationship can be frustratingly difficult. Why? Because while few Western women find Chinese men attractive, quite a lot of Western men find Chinese women attractive. This, at least, jives with my own observations as well as from countless conversations with Western women.
When discussing this with Rebekah yesterday, she remarked that her foreign friends who lived in Japan had it even worse. In addition to the white guy/Asian girl phenomenon found throughout the continent, Japanese women:
1. Tend to be less traditional and thus more willing to engage in relationships with foreigners
2. Come from a wealthy, developed country and thus have less motivation to go out with a foreigner because he's rich
3. Are far more familiar with Western culture than their Chinese counterparts and thus have an easier time relating to foreigners.
According to Rebekah, the situation for foreign women in Japan got so bad that most stopped caring about their appearance, as if in total surrender.
For those of you who have experience as expats in both countries, could you shed any light? How true are Rebekah's friends' observations?
