Famous Foreigners

Comp

Compared to Minneapolis, we’ve observed that Nanjing is quite monocultural.  Because of that, as foreigners, we have attracted attention not because of anything we do (hopefully), but just because we look different.  In the classes where our Northwestern students are helping with conversational English, the Chinese students swarm around wanting to be in pictures with them.  The two boys in our group now know what it feels like to be a rock star.  The girls all want their pictures taken with them, giggling and passing around their smart phones.  One of our American hosts mentioned that those pictures would probably be out on their social media by the end of the day!  In our prep course before we left, we talked about this “rock star phenomenon” and the need to keep a balanced perspective of oneself. It’s a challenge to maintain a servant attitude when everyone treats you like a celebrity.

 

Recently, we had a free day for outings in the city to some famous sites.  A number of us had the experience of being asked by random Chinese people to take pictures of themselves with us.  Not once, but maybe a dozen times.  One of the students was stopped by a camera woman for a TV station who filmed an impromptu interview.  Maybe he really will be on TV!  On top of that, we noticed ourselves being photographed on the sly by people off to the side.  These were undoubtedly friendly gestures, but it made us much more aware of how it feels to be “different.”

 

hat Nanjing is quite monocultural.  Because of that, as foreigners, we have attracted attention not because of anything we do (hopefully), but just because we look different.  In the classes where our Northwestern students are helping with conversational English, the Chinese students swarm around wanting to be in pictures with them.  The two boys in our group now know what it feels like to be a rock star.  The girls all want their pictures taken with them, giggling and passing around their smart phones.  One of our American hosts mentioned that those pictures would probably be out on their social media by the end of the day!  In our prep course before we left, we talked about this “rock star phenomenon” and the need to keep a balanced perspective of oneself. It’s a challenge to maintain a servant attitude when everyone treats you like a celebrity.

 

Recently, we had a free day for outings in the city to some famous sites.  A number of us had the experience of being asked by random Chinese people to take pictures of themselves with us.  Not once, but maybe a dozen times.  One of the students was stopped by a camera woman for a TV station who filmed an impromptu interview.  Maybe he really will be on TV!  On top of that, we noticed ourselves being photographed on the sly by people off to the side.  These were undoubtedly friendly gestures, but it made us much more aware of how it feels to be “different.”