Men taking photos of kids

Was in Tung Chung yesterday, Hagan Daaz to be exact, and was watching various children play in the big fountain there.

Was absolutely amazed at the amount of photographers (20+), all men as far as i could see and of all ages although mostly older men, taking photos of these kids. As far as i could tell none of them were with any of the kids.

Now, am i wrong in thinking this was rather strange and made me feel rather uncomfortable as no-one was batting an eyelid.

I know if my child was playing in that fountain and i saw some strange man/men taking their photo i would be asking them not to do so rather politely.

I know you haven't talked about the ethnicitíes involved but here's my experience: Tourists from the mainland love taking pics (and touching the hair ) of our blonde girls. While a bit annoying for us, I don't think there's anything sinister about it. They think blonde kids are fascinating, probably because they may never have seen any AND they don't have anything like our concept of privacy.


I do tend to "accidentally" stand in the way of the shot, and our kids are "trained" to make a face, but as mentioned I don't think there's anything sinister about it. They're probably just going to go home and show the pics off. "Check out how these people look! Isn't that special?"


A lady I know, who lived in a city on the mainland without a big expat community, said her daughter's first Mandarin words were "don't touch me". She was two at the time. It's a weird cultural rift between Westerners and mainlanders. They probably have no idea why we think this is strange. Certainly they don't seem to understand why it would be wrong to touch (or pick up and take a picture of) a child they don't know.


This contrast is true of many cultures. If you look at even southern Europeans they touch much more and stand much closer than Anglo-Saxons are comfortable with. Many normal behaviors in Italy might be considered borderline child molesting in the US Midwest.


So while you are not wrong, be aware that very different cultural mores are at play.


And while we're at it I think the Western world has gone too far in the other direction. I like looking at kids playing. There's nothing sinister about it.

Probably a photo club that were on their way to the cable car and saw the colourful children playing. I wouldn't get too worked up about it. There are many men whose hobby is photography here.