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Feeling like a plump alien with pale, pale skin
By Nicole Nieraad-Schalke |
February 22, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BEING a foreigner in China can be very challenging.
Not only do the most basic everyday activities like going to the supermarket become an adventure when you are an illiterate, you often also feel like an alien.
People are looking at you with curiosity or are secretly taking pictures.
This is sometimes called the Julia Roberts effect.
In addition, being a female foreigner in China can be even harder.
Western men are well-respected due to their masculine stature, whereas the situation seems to be different for women.
Take me as an example.
In Germany, I am size medium and on good days (thus not so often) actually size small. In China, however, I instantly fell into category of large or extra large.
If this size fact could just be seen on the label, I could easily ignore it (or accept it grudgingly). But, of course this difference reflects the reality on the streets!
The waitress who seems oh so petite in Chinese restaurants all over the world just represents the standard here and we are the fat exception.
My own perception of what is thin changes alarmingly quickly: though I have not gained any weight, it (apparently) has become increasingly difficult to button up my trousers.
What to do now?
As China appears to be mecca of fabric and shopping paradise rolled into one, the answer is obvious: go shopping!
In the mall, I am welcomed by an incredible number of service employees. Every single step I take is followed by about 20 pairs of eyes and around every corner I hear "Huanying guanglin!" by four to six shop assistants, meaning "Please buy here."
It's needless to say that for getting any assistance, the language barrier is too great, but nonetheless a helpful salesgirl follows me at a distance of 50cm, asking every 20 seconds: "You like?"
Unfortunately, the fitting also puts my self-confidence to the test. Only few changing rooms are equipped with mirrors inside. And thus, I am first scrutinized by at least three 40kg salesgirls (which includes elaborate Chinese comments) before I can look at myself in the outer mirror. This is definitely no fun, so I end up at the well-known European shops H&M and Zara again: thank you, globalization ...
Just one fact can restore my battered self-esteem. The colder it gets and the more my hard-earned tan fades, the more often I hear the sentence: Oh, beautiful skin! Instead of tinted moisturizer or self-tanning lotion, the shelves of drugstores are filled with nothing but products promising a whitening effect.
Asian women associate fair skin with wealth and an allegedly easy desk job. This ideal of beauty is the reason for some rather strange sights: sometimes I meet perfectly groomed young women whose face is much whiter than their arms or legs.
Maybe I just have to accept it: in China I am a plump alien with beautifully pale skin!
(The author is a freelance writer now staying in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.)
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