A TikTok video posted by travel creator Jen (@jenwtravels) shows a blonde, blue-eyed woman seated in a passenger transport cabin in what on-screen text describes as rural China. The clip opens with her filming her own face under cabin reading lights alongside the text “POV: you have blonde hair and blue eyes in rural China.” She then tilts her camera down toward the gap between her armrests, revealing a passenger in the row behind holding a smartphone through the seat crevice, lens pointed forward to secretly film or photograph her. She pans back up to her face and gives a quiet, knowing smirk at the situation. The video has gained over a million views. Jen’s caption reads, “Feel like a celeb here x.” Attention toward Western features in China According to a web article by Lehman, Lee & Xu titled “The Way Chinese Regard Foreigners,” Chinese citizens were once forbidden to talk with foreigners, but today a foreign guest can expect to be the object of much attention. The authors state that many Chinese regard foreigners with a mixture of awe, fear, and most of all, curiosity, and that Chinese often stare at foreigners in wide-eyed wonder. The same source notes that while the Chinese accord foreigners a certain amount of respect, there is also a great pride in Chinese culture and a belief that the Chinese population is the greatest race of people on earth. Chinese generally consider any Westerner to be rich, which causes both respect and resentment, the piece explains. The article writes that some Chinese cannot understand how foreigners could possibly have so much money, and that some still believe it is a result of capitalist exploitation, while more and more people are coming to understand free-market economics as the reason for the disparity. Language and appearance can also shape these encounters, as when a Sydney man was refused milk tea for not speaking Chinese. They add that Chinese often view Americans in particular as having material strength but a shallow cultural foundation due to their short 200-year history, and view Europe as the cultural center of the Western world, though its continuous history is also short compared with China’s reputed 5,000 years of civilization. Viewers responded to Jen’s clip with a range of reactions. One commenter questioned the behavior, writing, “I don’t get why they do this bro it’s an easy internet search if you want to look at blonde hair like???” Another asked, “wonder what they think of ginger hair.” Unsettling moments with fellow passengers often go viral, like a creepy encounter on a flight that left one woman rattled. A different viewer called the moment “weird…Not ok,” while another said, “The way I would have snatched that.” One person shared their own experience, writing, “I don t have blue eyes and still when in asia they stare constantly and especially women or older people stop me for taking photos if you re not a star just move to China bro.” Another simply noted, “That’s actually kinda scary.”