For the past few months I've been talking with a girl from China online, and on Skype. We seem to hit it off and would chat or talk pretty much every day, some days for a number of hours. On the days when one of us wouldn't be on for some reason, there would always be an email. Over the past 2 weeks she's become somewhat distant, not being online nearly as much, and not really saying much when she is. And even when we talk she'll do things like.. well I kind of feel silly mentioning this, but you know those little emoticons of flowers and things in msn, she used to put a couple of them up before saying goodnight, and now there's nothing, just a "goodnight, talk later". I know that sounds petty but when combined with the being distant, it's something I've noticed. I've asked her if she's started seeing someone, and she said no. I know we've just been talking but I really felt like we had made a connection and we had even discussed me coming over to visit her in a couple months' time, and she seemed receptive, even suggesting places we could visit. I've read things online about how Chinese girls sometimes play "hard to get" to see if a guy is really interested in her, but I don't know if that's real or just a stereotype. She seems to be more toward the modern end of the traditional-modern spectrum. My question is: has something similar happened to others, and if so, what was the outcome? Or if there are any Chinese girls reading this, do you have any advice? I really thought we had hit it off but then it seemed to take a downturn. Would I be rude to ask her outright why she's being distant? She did say she wasn't seeing anyone, but.. I'm a little frustrated :( Thanks for any advice.