The Time That I Thought I Was Famous

So a few years ago I went to china, an absolutely amazing country I must add, great food, cheap massages, they’ve also got a pretty cool wall..but that’s not what I’m here to write about. I’m here to write about the day I thought I was famous. 

Now I was in Hong Kong for the first part of my trip and when I was there nobody cared, nobody noticed me, looked twice or made eye contact, it was just like being on a commute on London underground. I may as well have been a crisp packet blowing aimlessly down the street or even worse one of those guys with a “golf sale sign”. I now feel their pain.

So I continued my travels to Beijing, expecting more of the same and it pretty much was until I arrived at the Forbidden City. My friend noticed it first, informing me of the blatant stares. One thing I have learnt about Mainland Chinese people is that they aren’t afraid to stare. If there is something they are not used to…a black guy in a string vest walking through the Forbidden City for instance. They would greet you with gawping eyes.

Really dude! You are going to stare me out like i'm the crazy one!

And my, my did the stares come flooding in. One stopped then another, then another, then another, one even came out of his deep squat whilst smoking his cigarette to stare at the view. Even this guy (picture 1), that’s when you know you're from out of town, when someone that looks like this feels compelled to stare you down. Nobody blinked at eyelid at him.  Yet they all found the time to ogle me. Now I’m not a shy person so I quite liked the attention especially when the cameras came out , but what about this guy (picture 2), he was staring at me for about 10 minutes.

The kid in the bottom left says it all

Then there was this guy! (Picture 3). When I went to Beijing zoo, after walking around casually, in blistering heat, I found myself frequently stopping to chill, get an ice cream,  take a few pictures etcetera and the whole time I could feel eyes in the back of my head. Now by this time I was used to people staring so it wasn’t anything I was afraid of or uncomfortable with. But he literally followed me around the zoo for 30 minutes like I was one of the animals.

I must admit though, I actually enjoyed it, especially the person that told me I looked like Will Smith, that pretty much made my day…this broke student living of baked beans , cereal and £1 Iceland fish fingers was compared to one of the most entertaining and inspirational black people of my generation…the fact that it was a 10 year old kid that could barely speak English is not important here!

Caught in the act!

From then on that theme continued throughout the trip; people comparing me to Will Smith. It happened so much that I actually felt like the man himself. At that point the only difference between Will Smith and myself was my fake Gucci belt. Good times.

Comparision!?...Only in China!