Those of you who have ever spoken more than five words to me know that I love to sing, no matter if the occasion is appropriate or not. Luckily, the Chinese love KTV, also known as karaoke. In China, you and your friends rent a KTV room that looks like a luxury suite with a giant TV. You sing privately with your friends for as long as you're willing to pay. Many KTV places will serve drinks or food. Apparently, many KTV places also serve... female entertainers. That is the nicest way to put it. Men can pay for attractive women to sing and dance for them in the karaoke rooms. Some boys in my teaching program are living in a hotel that has KTV on a separate floor, and as we went to see about getting a room a heavy-set man and Barbie doll girl in sky high heels past us by. One guy nonchalantly mentioned, "That's the pimp that works at this hotel."
We ended up going to another KTV place, not the one in their hotel (they are everywhere and that one was ridiculously expensive, probably because of the whole "women on display as entertainment" thing.) I learned that KTV is pretty awesome. They all have a large selection of English songs, although some are pretty random. Also, probably for legal reasons or perhaps just because China is filled with things that make no sense to me, many of the songs didn't use the original music video. Sophie sang a Dido song and the video looked like a tourist advertisement for Sweden. Another friend sang something Mariah Carey and it was a weird movie where a girl looked sad and walked around a swingset. So strange! But singing was incredibly fun. The staff was really excited that foreigners wanted to do KTV at their establishment. They gave us a "foreign discount" and before we left, they took turns taking pictures with us, passing their iPhones from photographer to photographer. We were such a novelty.
Before leaving for China, I was forewarned that foreigners fascinate Chinese people, but I never really believed it. In China, American movies and TV shows are so pervasive, the population has seen white people before. But I guess we just are so unusual here that we become a spectacle, performers in a freak show. In Nanjing, people stare. People pass us and yell "hello," and little kids point to us and giggle. People of all ages and genders tell us how beautiful we are (OK, that one I definitely like.) Especially in a city like Hefei that doesn't see a lot of tourists, we really stick out. I do not think I have ever walked into a restaurant and felt all eyes resting on my group and me. And when someone stares at you, you naturally keep glancing at them. It becomes this weird interaction. The staring and pointing really does make me feel like a movie star sometimes. Other times, I'm just wondering what people think when they pass me on the street. Lots of people ask us why we're here (usually in Chinese, answered by my trusty bilingual friends.) It's fairly disconcerting, but I'm sure it won't be on my mind as much later in the year. Sometimes it will be awesome (discounts! compliments! friends!) and sometimes it will be terrible (awkward! rip-offs! random creepy people trying to speak English with me!) but hey, it's life in China. And this China doll can deal with being a star, for now.
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