An embarrassing confession - in the first few months that I was here, I was always thinking to myself, "What is wrong with all of the toddlers in this country?" It seemed to me that every kid under the age of the age of three that I saw was wandering around in a glazed, slightly-numb dreamlike trance state - much like the young gentleman in the picture above.
It was only much later, after getting to see and know many Chinese toddlers that act like, well, toddlers, that I realized the obvious. What I took to be a lack of energy was, in all probability, a kid being utterly astounded by the appearance of somebody that looks totally strange to them. I mean, what's wrong with that big white dude? His eyes are all funny! And his kids' hair is totally the wrong color...
And now that I'm writing this, that explanation also seems a bit off. I think what we've got here is a classic case of selective perception. Now that I think about it, I'm sure that 98 percent of Chinese toddlers that I observe are about as aware of me as they are of Queen Elizabeth. Out of those that do notice me, another 98 percent take no special notice. My brain has just been good at recognizing the remaining two percent of two percent, which, because China does have a few more toddlers that the US, is still a pretty large amount of deer-in-the-headlights three and four year olds. That's my theory, anyway. Maybe someday I'll go out and test it. While carrying a plastic AK-47, as a control.
Or maybe not.
(Theeere, that's a bit more like it... Now smile, kid!)
No comments:
Post a Comment