With skin so pale it glows in the dark and a gigantic head of curly hair, I’ve found it difficult during the past three years to go out without getting noticed. Strange men shout “hello” at me when I walk down the street. People leer, oggle, and torque their bodies completely around when I pass by. After Nico was born, and I started lugging him around, I found I had to contend with gathering crowds at any pause and the near constant clicks of camera phones. I like to think now that I’m accustomed to the attention and the gawking, I handle it pretty well (Nico doesn’t even notice so long as the gawkers are willing to hold him).
So when people started coming up to me this week, saying, “I saw you on tv,” I feel like I should have handled it better. But how is a person supposed to respond to that? I mean on this show, it’s pretty obvious that I know I’m on tv, so they’re probably not trying to inform me. My tv self can’t see the people who are watching me, so it’s not like I can forget to wave or neglect to see them. Often times these are people I hardly know, so it would seem silly to launch into a story about how this is my new job. I’ve thought about asking them what they think about my television appearances, but have reached the conclusion that I really don’t want to know just in case they think I look as silly (and old!) as I think I do.
So I’ve resigned myself to my default: a mildly interested, “Oh, really?” And then do my best to change the subject. For the record, changing the subject is much more difficult in Chinese than it is in English.