Friday, August 05, 2005

Is this racist?

I believe that I have anti-Chinese tendencies.
You must understand; I just now remembered the day I became convinced of my fatness. I was 12 or 13, and the siblings and I were at a family friend's house. These people were (in fact they still are) Chinese, so when you imagine this scene, imagine it in Chinese with twitchy, black-haired people running about in it.
And if you don't speak Chinese, well. That's even better.
The lady of the house was measuring me for some hand-me-down pants. She threaded the measuring tape around my waist and then held it up, eye-level. Chaos ensued. "Mimi," she literally screamed, "This cannot be! Mimi! Wah!" And then she measured again and when it was the same, she shook her head in what I guess was disbelief. "Mimi," she said this quite firmly,"You must go on a diet. You are too big. This," she then bellowed across the living room to my mother, "is how big I was in college!"
I remember being devastated.
However, today I also remembered that at 13, I was 5' tall and had just reached 101 lbs.
So now, I just hate Chinese women. Stupid tiny Chinese women.
My first time shopping in China, a lady walked up behind me to look at the skirt I was holding. She said, "You can't get into that," and walked away. I've also had someone tell me that I had a Chinese face and an American body. (Which means a fat body, in case that wasn't clear.) I've had a girl actually put her hands on either side of my ribcage, shake me like a cantalope, and then look at me in wonder, "Your body is so dense."
I've heard that in Taiwan, acupuncture, this age-old Chinese medicine, is now a weight-loss alternative. Seriously? Seriously, I want to know, what is wrong with these people?!
When will the Chinese learn that there is a difference between a high standard and a standard of objective perfectionism? When will they learn that the latter hinders more than it helps.
So many people, so much stupid.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think I've been 101 pounds since I was...in...4th grade? So about 10? I'd hate to go to China, they'd probably try to eat me.

My dad bought me a dress in Taiwan when I was in junior high. It was an extra large and the sales lady asked if it was for his wife. It also no longer fits me at all.

10:11 PM  

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