Repatriate wrote:Rock wrote:
1. Well the Africans in Bangkok have a terrible reputation for good reason. And they seem to have worked out some sort of deal with authorities which gives them some leeway in conducting their...'businesses'. The ones I saw in Beijing were involved in similar activities.
Africans are usually involved in the gem business and the legit businessmen make pretty good money importing in this stuff for Thai jewelers to cut and then go on to export to various international destinations. However, there's a large number of Africans who work as drug couriers and such within Bangkok. The reason why they can operate for so long is because they are usually running for some mid range Thai cartel. The drug of choice for African dealers seems to be cocaine and marijuana. If you are white and touristy looking and spend your time around soi nana long enough i'm sure you'll get propositioned by a dealer at some point.
2. I've noticed that Africans, especially west Africans from English speaking countries like Nigeria and Ghana pretend to be black Americans at pick-up places all over Asia. Of course its always better to be from a rich country and its easy to fool non-English speaking Asians in the short term. One girl I know in Taiwan dated a black guy for several months. She never figured out where he was really from, but he sure as hell wasn't American or European.
Yeah there are a lot of dumb asian girls.

I've had people (even Chinese & Taiwanese) insist i'm from some place other than what I am before based on the way I dress and look. The top 3 ethnicities/nationalities i'm mistaken as are 1) Japanese 2) Korean 3) Singaporean If i'm sporting Ken Watanabe style facial hair and dressing formal then they always guess Japanese. I've amusingly had Japanese people mistake me as Japanese before in Bangkok. The only time people know i'm an ABC is when i'm talking with highly educated middle/upper middle class asian people.
3. These days, many of the white girls who are into black guys, esp. western Europeans, are very open or even predisposed to dating Africans. Some of the Nigerians and Senegalese males you see in places like London or Paris are super charming, attractive, and very well presented. If you go on Afro Introductions and search the many profiles of white women from places like Germany, you will see from their detailed descriptions that they want to find a nice African guy.
No doubt but i'd say Africans living in the west as immigrants are a different category altogether. It's much easier for them in the long run because they are on the path towards "assimilation" into the western black culture. Look at rappers like "Akon" he's from a 100% African household but embraced African-American culture and was accepted as such by the mainstream. African-American media and culture is a fairly powerful thing these days.
As for Thailand, I suspect its the same story, just a subset of girls are available to blacks and non-Asians (do you agree Repat?).
Yes, it's still pretty rare that I see a Thai/Black man together but I have seen it. I have seen far more Thai women/Indian couples. These aren't fob Indians but well dressed and trendy looking Thai-Indians hooking up with pretty top tier Thai girls. This all depends on the social circles.
I also have actual first hand accounts from a friend of mine (African-American) who lived in Thailand for about a year. He told me that a lot of Thai club girls were actually ok with it as long as it was discrete. As you have already noted the European tourist girls was certainly the easy low hanging fruit for a guy like him.
I think Taiwan and China are more neutral but there are still some who will rule out for being black or even just foreign. I suspect Taiwan is generally much more open minded than China on this issue too.
It's interesting that you say this I think Taiwanese and Chinese people can be pretty openly racist. I rarely see blacks/indians/arabs marrying Taiwanese/Chinese within those particular societies. There are quite a few family friends where the topic has come up and they have said outright they would disown their daughter/son if they brought home a black or even a white person.
There might be a bit of confirmation bias because if you hang out with certain international orientated social circles or girls who ONLY date foreigners anyways you come away with a certain impression.
If you look at the foreign marriage stats (for Taiwan) it seems to still be mostly intra-asian relationships with mail order brides from countries like Vietnam topping the lists.
1. I used to stay in the gem district section of Bangrak (higher sois of Siliom). Surprised I rarely saw any Africans around in that area. The guys around Nana have gotten extremely bold and will approach about anyone, even Thais, who happen to pass through their hot spots.
2. These days, its getting harder to be sure about where someone is from. My girlfriend gets mistaken for being Korean a lot. Taipei has people who could easily pass for ABCs. And some ABCs/quasi ABCs could pass for locals. For example, both Winston and Momopi have bigger builds but do not stand out as being non-local Taiwanese or ABCs when walking around the streets here IMO. In Korea, I saw a lot of people who could have blended right in Taiwan. Yesterday, on the MRT back home, I saw an extremely masculine and buff local guy with a very high nose and big eyes, very atypical for garden variety east Asians. But somehow, atypical is becoming a lot more typical. In my gym, there's a Taiwanese guy I see sometimes who's pushing around 200 cm, has a very chiseled masculine face, dresses and looks like an out of uniform basketball player, but is totally local when he opens his mouth, lol.
3. Akon is still very local African looking IMO, not like some of the guys you see in Europe. And anyway, he spent some time in the States growing up. My gf was a big fan of his and a couple years ago we went to a local Miami club just cus he was gonna be there. By the time he got up the stage to sing a bit, he was totally wasted and being held up by his big bodyguards half the time. He also won't reveal his age (says he forgot when he was born). You gotta keep in mind, some of the better presented Africans have exotic appeal, even to African American women who may find their contrast from the prototypical style of black American men refreshing. Nigerians are in a class of their own and are even notorious in many African countries.
4. Yea, my gf's father also threatened to disown her if she got serious with a foreigner and even preferred she avoid non-Taiwanese speaking locals. He also said he would do the same thing if she left the family biz which she had been involved with since age 12. That didn't stop her from doing either. She got an outside job, dated me, and then took me to visit her home (first time to meet her mom independently). Soon after that, he somehow changed. In fact, she and I had a rough patch 3 years ago when she briefly left me (for good reason I must admit) but her mom went to bat for me. I'm treated just like her older sister's local boyfriend and we visit her home 2-3 times per month. Her dad talks to me a lot about current events and investments.
Most local girls I met here in the past seemed to have neutral parents or at worst, a bit cautious about dating foreigners. And keep in mind, a lot of the girls I met were not in the venues where foreigners typically meet local girls - clubs, English speaking activities, etc. When I went to work at a company everyday, I would sometimes approach random office girls in the streets near my office during lunch time or right after most people got off work. Sometimes I would approach students around college campuses too. Bookstores and shops were another great source. A fair number had limited or even no experience with foreigners which sometimes worked in my favor.
Now my experience with Chinese in some other places was much worse. In the States, it seems like a lot of Taiwanese/Chinese American girls had considerable pressure from their parents to stick with their own race. In this sense, these girls seemed more closed and conservative than locals in Taiwan. So why is it that most Taiwanese women still marry other Taiwanese while a large percentage of ABC women marry non-ethnic Chinese? To me the obvious reason is that Taiwan, relatively speaking, just doesn't have many white collar male foreign residents while the States is obviously dominated by non-Chinese. BTW, I spent a semester in HK and we exchange students also found the local girls very difficult, presumably for similar reasons as ABCs. Thus, even though HK has a higher percentage of white collar male foreign residents, its much less common for them to date and/or marry local girls than it is in Taiwan. Most unmarried foreign guys I know in Taiwan have had romantic connections with local girls. The same does not hold true for HK. Unlike HK or SP (corporate class) or BK (extreme party, tropical weather, and tourism), Taiwan is not very much on the map for white color foreigner visitors. The most common slot is English teacher or student of Chinese, both of which tend to be rather short term.
As for China, I think its more difficult to generalize. My own particular sweet spot is with girls from select second tier cities where I have the most experience. I was quite surprised some of the girls I queried on the topic seemed open to dating blacks though did not have special preference for them. And the ones who were not as open often told me they felt afraid (so black, how terrible!) which is a reflection of limited exposure more than anything else. Generally, the Chinese seem to be a lot more pragmatic vis-a-vis Koreans or Japanese.
All else equal, I would rather be white than black in Taiwan or China, prolly Phils too. Ditto for Russia. In Brazil, your prolly much better off being white to pursue girls from the upper middle class and above. In Colombia, I think whites generally have better prospects with all classes. Europe and Angloshere seems to be much better for blacks. Other parts of the world (Africa, Middle East) are up for debate.
Bottom line is, your race may help, hurt, or even make or break you with a particular target. But generally, I firmly believe personal physical factors - face, height, build, etc. - are much more important. If you're a below average looking overweight black guy, don't expect girls to throw themselves at you anywhere, even in Iceland.