When we are sitting in a restaurant, people come up to us and want to take my son's picture. They stare at him, practice saying "hello" to him, and are otherwise completely fascinated. A waitress at a local restaurant is demanding that he bring her a picture of himself. James is eight, and his hair is light brown, and he has very blue eyes. There is another little boy with fair hair and blue eyes who is a son of one of the other teachers, and he gets the same sort of attention.
My sixteen year old daughter gets some stares, but I, at 43, am essentially invisible. Of course, from the back, I could pass for a Chinese woman who's had a bad permanent wave. That's one of the things I like about being here, I'm not noticeably thin, I'm average.
Nanjing has enough foreigners living here so that we are not complete freaks, but we are sort of novelties. As I am least affected by it, I don't mind it. Sarah says she doesn't care because they don't stare at her much. James says, "it's sort of creepy and it's sort of fun and it's sort of weird."
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2 comments:
Has James said anything in Chinese to the passersby?
Lisa,
Hi! I guess James is living with a celebrity, too (I assume you were informed that one of your blog posts is on the front page of the local section in this morning's Democrat, which is how I found your blog).
I hope everything is going well. I'll read your posts and make comments and snide remarks when I get home from work.
BTW, I'll be leaving for my Chinese adventure in 73 days, not that I'm counting. My blog is at: http://www.thoughtbyscott.com/blog
Take care and tell James "Hi" too.
Your Chinese school classmate,
Scott
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