Many years ago I met a pleasant old woman at the Hay Festival and she asked me as politely as she could what racial group I belonged to. When I told her I was Chinese, she became fascinated. “I’ve never seen a Chinese before,” she said in excitement.
How could that be when one-fifth of the entire human race is Chinese alone and that’s not including the Koreans and Japanese who are genetically the same?
When we chatted a little more later, it turned out that not only had she not travelled abroad, she had not even ventured beyond Hereford in her entire life. She asked me what China looked like and even after I clarified that I had only been to China as a tourist, she still found it hard to think of me as anything apart from a citizen of China.
I’m sure if she sees this photo, she will be convinced more than ever that I lived in China and fed on bamboo shoots like panda bears.
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