Friendly flag
(New friends in Tiananmen Square: Beijing, China)
You would think I had known these characters for years, the way we are all gathered together in my mum’s camera lens. This is yet another opportunity seized by Chinese tourists to have a white friend in their photo album. I’m not sure if I am part of a game, a collection or a simple diversion from the boredom of waiting for sunset. We had been standing around to see the Tiananmen Square National Flag put away (with great ceremony) for almost an hour, so I can understand the need or some amusement.
I could see from the corner of my eye that the group were attempting to take photographs of me on the sly – this I cannot stand. If I take a photo of someone, I make sure I ask them, or I try to do it in such a way that they will never know I have done it. Standing a foot away from me, they were whispering loudly amongst themselves and each handing various cameras to whichever one of them had the best shot. I deliberately foiled their plans by turning my head away and putting my hands to my face. After several minutes, one of the boys eventually asked for a photo. At this point, they had caught me and it seemed churlish not to oblige. As usual, my deal is that they must do the same for me, waiting until I have secured a group shot. They are immortalised here, but I have no idea what they might do with their images; “Oh, this is our English friend from Beijing” or “this one is the five hundredth and seventy-fifth picture we took of a foreigner in Beijing” or even “we have found the whitest one so far”.
– Today Rosie is in the UK –
