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Eye of the Beholder

By Jorinde Berben (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-04-25 09:35

Any foreigner who has traveled to places in China other than the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, has certainly become aware of how much attention they draw. I remember walking to the city center with my husband, and seeing a crowded bus drive by in which every face was turned towards us. Sometimes it's fun to be the celebrity, sometimes you'd rather make yourself invisible. The latter is especially the case when you're tired, stressed, too hot, too cold, in a bad mood, or when you have a bad-hair-day. Usually I just try to ignore the stares and look the other way.

The author poses with a girl at an Auto Show in China. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

But there are other ways to deal with the attention too. How about making some money, for example? Your Western looks might turn out to be a desired asset for some jobs. Teaching English is the main option, but there are other opportunities too. My friend and I were asked to be car-show models for a couple of days, and we didn't let the chance slip by. We were told to 'interview' with the boss of the Yantai Volkswagen shop. We went over to the shop, tried some poses, and got the job. I think he was just making sure we wouldn't turn out to be totally horrible, because I felt quite awkward during the whole time.

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My friend had done this kind of thing before, but not me. I had never, in my wildest dreams, ever thought of being a model. I never thought of myself as particularly pretty, I'm not that tall and my thighs would protest at even going near a size 2 pair of pants. But this is China, and in China, being a Westerner makes you a little bit special. Apart from dealing with higher prices when bargaining, it also means finding rare experiences that you might otherwise never have come across.

We were told to go over to the venue, a big exposition hall, the day before the show started, so that we could try on some clothes. They also asked us to bring some of our own shoes and fancy dresses to see if we could use them. They had organized the car show in the biggest exposition hall in the city. It has four floors, and all these were filled with cars of every brand I'd ever heard of, and then some. I'd never realized how many different car brands there are in the world, especially Chinese brands.

We waited for a couple of hours until someone showed up with the clothes and the shoes. It soon turned out that they didn't really have shoes in our size. Both of us being tall Western girls, our feet are pretty much enormous compared to the tiny Chinese feet (even if the foot-binding is gone now, they're still small!) I only had two pairs of high-heeled shoes, which they weren't too happy about. In the end, however, we didn't have much of a choice. It was either my simple black heels, or no heels at all.

On Thursday morning, the first day at my 'new job', I got up with butterflies in my stomach. I felt more nervous than I had been on my first teaching day. This was, after all, way out of my comfort zone. My Chinese friend helped me get ready for the show. She helped me put on some make-up and put up my hair. I thought I looked quite elegant, nothing too flashy. We packed a bag of necessities for a whole day, and set out to get a taxi.

When we arrived, it quickly became clear that I had not thought about the scale of this event realistically. I had underestimated how many people would actually be there and how important the event was. There were so many gorgeous Chinese models, all with professional hair-do's and make-up. Their heels were so high that my shoes seemed to be sinking into the ground by comparison.

When we got up to the Volkswagen pavilion area on the third floor. There were about seven different cars on display, from a little Beetle to a nice convertible and a sort of outdoorsy car. The boss took a quick look at us, and immediately commented that we should put on make-up. Clearly, 'subtlety' was not what they wanted. We quickly got out the emergency make-up kit, and piled on some more eye-shadow. With a face that didn't quite feel like my own, slightly wobbly on my feet and in a long dress that left my back completely bare, I slowly walked out of the little stall toward the cars.

Immediately, all eyes were on us. We heard 'ooooh' and 'aaaah' everywhere. Camera's appeared around us and in a matter of seconds we were surrounded by flashes. It all felt so surreal. I didn't quite know how to behave. Sneaking a peek at my friend, I smiled nervously. She seemed quite at ease. I imitated some of the ways in which she casually leaned on the side of the car. I put my hand on the top, like she did, and plastered a smile on my face. Trying to look at the different camera's all the time and appear to smile genuinely, took all my concentration. Then, suddenly, I felt a tap on my arm. I looked, and saw a young girl of about twenty years old.

'Can I take picture with you?' She pointed to her boyfriend who waved at me.

'Sure!' I said. She put her arm around me and made the characteristic V sign at the camera. I felt I was smiling genuinely for the first time that day. After that, her boyfriend wanted a turn. After the boyfriend, came another guy, and then another one. Time seemed to fly by as we took pictures with all different kinds of people: From shy toddlers, who were more afraid of us than anything else, to their grandparents. Before I knew it, I'd been on my feet posing for three hours straight.

Around lunch time, we were told we could get out of the modeling clothes and go outside for a bite to eat. It seemed that every car-brand had ordered the same thing for its people: Pre-packaged Chinese meals that came in convenient plastic trays. Every company had different color trays. People were sitting on chairs or on the steps outside, eating with disposable chop-sticks. The food was remarkably good. There was meat, fish, two different vegetable dishes, and rice. I was pleasantly surprised!

In the afternoon, we noticed bigger cameras appear, carried by, mostly, older men. Our friend pointed out that these were professional photographers. They took pictures for newspapers, magazines, flyers and websites. The men asked us to sit here and there, smile or look serious, tilt our head slightly this way or that way. We posed half seated in the convertible, pretending to be driving. It was so much fun. Other visitors took advantage of the great shots as well, often getting in the way of the professionals.

After a day of standing and smiling, we were absolutely exhausted. I couldn't feel my feet, or my cheeks. The next morning, however, we were back for more. That day passed in much the same way as the first Thursday had done. I saw some of my students on Saturday, but they didn't recognize me in the long dress and without my glasses. I guess I did look pretty different.

In my memory, the four days have melted together and blended into one endless series of photo flashes and curious faces. I know for sure that my future career won't be in the modeling business, but I'm sure happy I got the opportunity to find out what it's like. That would only have been possible in China.

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