Let's have a staring contest

Have I mentioned that everyone stares at me as I pass by? It’s as if they’ve never seen a white person before! There are billboards all over the city that feature foreigners advertising certain goods, but when people here actually see a foreigner, they almost get that deer in the headlights look.

There are a lot of construction sites here because there are so many shopping centers and apartment buildings being constructed. Many of the construction workers at those sites are from tiny towns that are a fair distance from Chengdu.

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I see some of these workers along the street.

Once, when I was walking by the school with Mrs. Wong, we were passed by one of these construction workers. Now, I am used to people starting, but usually they try to hide their lingering glances. Well, at least, they attempt to conceal the fact they are staring, but they always fail.

This particular man was very interesting because he didn’t try to hide his staring at all. He kept staring right at me with the biggest smile on his face. He then spoke to Mrs. Wong, in Chinese, that he had never seen a foreigner before. This was surprising to me as the man had to be at least 40 years old! 40 years without ever seeing someone who wasn’t Asian. How strange.

He continued to stare and smile at me, so I smiled back, waved, and said “Hello!” The man then got so excited that he (and I’m not making this part up) jumped, did a little twirl in the air, and then skipped away. Yes, you read that right: skipped.

Going back to the whole staring thing, EVERYONE stares at me. The students at school. The people on the street. Other drivers on the road. Little kids. Old people. People in the market. EVERYONE.

It’s because there are no other foreigners here. In fact, in the time I’ve spent here, I still haven’t seen any other foreigners other than the teachers at the schools. Because of this general lack of white people, I’m pretty sure that if I saw another foreigner, I’d stare too!!

When I go to the elementary school building on campus, I am often surrounded by little kids saying “hello!” My high school students don’t stare as much as they are used to having foreigners teach them.

Here are two photos of girls who kept pointing and staring at me. On the right are girls from school, and on the left are two girls who essentially stalked me through my apartment complex yesterday. They were all just so adorable that I had to snap some photos.