As an average looking mayo, I had tons of people asking to take my picture in the middle of Xi'an around 2016. I wasn't there as a tourist though so we weren't anywhere near the terracotta army or anything and were probably the only non-Chinese people to be at the rural temples and stuff we were visiting. I thought one guy was asking me to take his picture in front of a big mural, but he pulled me in for a selfie instead. I don't think it was like "omg a white person" though as much as "omg a foreigner in my part of town". If they weren't so racist, someone in rural Arkansas (or wherever) would probably get excited about a Chinese person in their town just because its a rare circumstance.
As an average looking mayo, I had tons of people asking to take my picture in the middle of Xi'an around 2016. I wasn't there as a tourist though so we weren't anywhere near the terracotta army or anything and were probably the only non-Chinese people to be at the rural temples and stuff we were visiting. I thought one guy was asking me to take his picture in front of a big mural, but he pulled me in for a selfie instead. I don't think it was like "omg a white person" though as much as "omg a foreigner in my part of town". If they weren't so racist, someone in rural Arkansas (or wherever) would probably get excited about a Chinese person in their town just because its a rare circumstance.