Every Breath you Take (I'll be Watching you)

It's not news to anyone who's read my blog that I get stared at a lot in China, and when I say a lot I mean a REAL lot. But I've been noticing recently that the stares can be broken down into several categories. First there's the standard stare this is someone who is walking by, or riding in an elevator who just looks over at me for a second before turning back. This is by far the most common type of look I get to the point where I almost don't notice it anymore. After that I'm not sure I could create a hierarchy of the looks I get most so the rest are presented in no particular order. There's the cascading head turn. This usually happens when I walk up behind or to the side of a group of people. Since they don't all see me walking toward them they don't all look at one time. One person will turn and see me, say something to the next person who will look, then the next and the next. I think the most I've ever gotten one after the other is five, which by the time the fifth person turned to look I was cracking up. There's the excited stare. This usually comes from children who are so interested that there mouths literally drop open some times. This can often come at the beginning of a cascading head turn since they'll excited tell their family. Even with my limited Chinese I notice that sometimes they say the wrong thing. I've heard them say to their friends, "Look a foreigner from England."

One of the most surprising is the drive by stare. It's really a testament to how much I stick out that people can see me coming from a block away to get in a good long stare as they drive by on a bus. Sometimes this one also turns into a cascade as they elbow their friends to come check out the foreigner. There reverse of this also happens where I'll be in a bus and get people staring into the bus at me. The most unnerving is the up and down stare. Sometimes when people get on elevators and see me they turn their whole body around to face me look me in the eyes then look all the way down and up my body. They actually drop their heads slightly when they get down to my feet. I guess I have a sense what it would be like to be a super model. It's by far the oddest feeling to have someone just ogle you like that, especially because it's usually the older guys who are brave enough to do it. There's also the whispering stare, which is sort of a version of the cascade but when everyone sees me at once. As soon as a group sees me they may all just start frantically whispering to one another. Finally there's the following stare which is when someone walking or riding by turns their head so much as they pass you that you'd think their about to crash into something.

If this seems hard to get used to it is. When I first got here it was a rush but that quickly wore off and it was replaces by a feeling of paranoia and annoyance. But after some months had passed I got sued to it and now I think I'd miss it if it went away. The other upside is I have no qualms about taking any picture of the Chinese I want, after all turn about is fair play.