Hidden Stare
(Cats: Jing’An Temple, Shanghai)
This cat stared at us staring at it for several minutes. In fact, its gaze radiated the monstrous feeling that perhaps it was able to read my mind. Dogs are much simpler creatures and I prefer them – though cats are easier to photograph, as they usually have no chaperone. This pair were reclining above the heads of the monks in the temple (see them here: http://china.analoguegirl.co.uk/monks-at-lunch/) and apparently had discovered a spot where they would not be disturbed, until Ying and I shuffled along the temple’s wooden ramparts.
It was the intensity and prolonged glare that arrested me, so I wanted to share it. The indifference of the other, possibly older feline to us makes it all the more amusing that the little pied cat is fixated on us, even though we were merely standing, conducting no activity of the remotest interest whatsoever. The ginger Tom has the air of one who has experienced our kind of transient day tripper curiosity before and is exhausted by the heat. To give the little cat some credit, perhaps like many Chinese, he is fascinated by my pale skin and unusual appearance, or he is young and feeling vulnerable below us.
