Fifteen minutes
Y'know, since I posted pictures of celebrities in my last post, maybe I should talk about my own turn as a celebrity. Well, maybe I shouldn't, but I can't think of anything else to write, so you're stuck with it. Anyway, last Saturday we did the regular hike thing. The only unusual thing about it was that some of us decided to climb all the way to the top of Qi Shan. Unlike my last conquest of Qi Shan, there were plenty of other folks up there to share in the glory--a couple dozen at least. Anyway, while our group was sitting and enjoying some snacks, another group came over and asked to have their photo taken with me. It was a group of students from a local school for traditional Chinese medicine. Even though I had already posed for the regular group shots with our own group, I was glad to pose with these other folks, too. It only took a couple of minutes to pose and schmooze, mostly because our limited ability in each others' languages limited the schmoozing. They asked the typical questions: Where are you from? How long have you been in China? Can you speak Chinese? It was all a bit fun, but hardly novel.Jump ahead to Saturday evening. I ventured over to the neighborhood English corner for the regular Saturday night session. The neighborhood corner is doing quite well this year. Either word has gotten around to the high school kids or their teachers are really pushing them to go. Whatever the cause, the place was packed and there were about a dozen of us who had spilled out onto the sidewalk. The topic was "weather". When the time came for everybody to converse with the people at their table, we formed a group right there outside. I had met a couple of the kids before and there was one student from the college, but the majority of the group were new to me. As was I to them. We did manage to discuss the topic for a little bit, but then someone asked, "Where are you from?" I answered, of course, not being a stickler for staying on topic. The discussion slowly eroded from there as we started talking less and less about weather and more and more about the foreigner in their midst. Soon, however, the corner was over and we all went our separate ways.
On the way back to campus I chatted a bit with Sherry, the lone college student in our group. She mentioned something along the lines that the middle school students enjoyed the chance to talk with a foreigner. I replied that I was glad I could oblige them. She then said that she had noticed that we tend to get asked the same questions again and again. I was tempted to reply, "Welcome to my world." But since she probably wouldn't have understood the metaphor, I simply agreed. Her comment did get me thinking, though. I imagine that our life here in the sticks of Yunnan is a bit like that of a celebrity. We don't make the big bucks, of course. (though Yau Neih's salary is quite good compared to local standards) Nor have we received any offers to appear on a game show or The Love Boat. (This shows how out of it I am. Where do celebrities with fading careers end up these days?) But we do get noticed. I've had people come up out of the blue and say that they heard we shopped at such and such store or mention that they saw us dancing in the park. We also have a steady supply of people who want to talk to us, or at least get our photo.
The girls really don't care for it all. Me, I vacillate between enjoying the attention and wishing I could just become invisible. It's nice when people are genuinely happy to see you. But it's the most superficial of relationships. I get a sense that I'm performing, giving people a glimpse of that exotic land called America. It's a privilege to be able to do so, but it's nowhere near as satisfying as a real friendship. Thankfully we do have both. And by the end of next year it'll be over. After a brief stint of being the exotic world travelers offering a glimpse of China, we will once again become mundane.
posted by John @ 6:42 AM
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