Copycats
(Military in front of the Forbidden City: Beijing, China)
Many apologies for not explaining my absence since Tuesday. It’s amazing how some places still have dial up internet… I went away for a couple of days and was stranded in an online sense. Anyway, I am officially back in the chair again!
Here’s one of my favourite images from my time in Beijing; soldiers are being shuffled in front of a camera lens, presumably for a group photo of a trip to Beijing. Even off duty, it was incredible to note how many men were in uniform at all the major Beijing attractions; the Summer Palace had family men in uniform, tucking their kid into pram blankets, the temples had them wandering sedately, clutching bags of souvenirs or leaflets, and then here – their officer snapping them with a little digital camera. All these soldiers look decidedly serious, and collectively they appear surprisingly homogenous. When I first came to China, that was something I noticed; Chinese people all look completely different from one another in a way I have never been aware of in the UK. Some people have round faces, flat faces, wide eyes, round eyes, paper thin openings for eyes, they’re brown, tan, almost white, tall, thin, fat, wide, stunted, rickety, high cheekboned, purse lipped, etc.etc. It probably sounds mindless to admit, but I just was not aware that some Chinese people look almost native American or white or Russian. Put any of these in a uniform and crop their hair though, and they all become clones.
– Today Rosie is back from her road trip –
