Today I got my hair cut at Shaggers. I'm told if this were the UK, the place would be the laughing stock of professional hairstylists. In any case, they were friendly and cheap.
During my cut, i noticed a woman (one of the stylists) staring at me. It wasn't uncomfortable like some glances can be; it felt more like a look of pure curiosity. When i was paying at the counter, she came up and asked me if i was from China. It pleased me a lot that she actually came up to ask me, and didn't automatically assume that was the case.
I happily told her I was Canadian, but of Chinese ancestry and that my family was all in Canada, so on, so on. She was very happy with that reply and, the ice broken, went on to tell me that her niece was living in China. I asked her where. She said Shanghai, and that she had married a Chinese man, a Richard Wong... and was there a chance that i knew him? If only - now wouldn't that be the biggest coincidence! :)
I told her as politely as possible that, unfortunately, I didn't know him but it isn't too surprising since there are over 1.3 billion people in the country. However i did tell her my maiden name was also Wong. She seemed very pleased about that and with the broadest grin imageinable, wished me a good day.
I'm pleased that I don't feel that strange or different than the next white or black or coloured person. Sometimes i do get that little longer-than-normal-glance or the double-take, but nothing vicious or ill-intentionned, at least not from what i can sense.
Perhpas I've become so accustomed to 'blending in' whilst living in Asia that every look here is exaggerated in my mind. But then again, in a country where, for so long, the colour of your skin defined who you were, where you came from and what you would become, I feel that everyday I am witnessing little snippets of that history unravelling, exposed and still fresh.
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