Asia for the under-12s
We’d read about it but it still surprised us with its frequency. Being stopped in the street so the locals could take pictures of our kids became a feature of our trip through Asia - especially in China and Japan.
Our families weren’t too surprised at Lea and I travelling the world - we’d always wanted to do things differently - but it took them a while to get their heads around the fact that we were taking the kids. Like we could have left them at home for nine months!
Brett and Beaulea, aged eleven and eight at the time, were blissfully unaware of the attention that was waiting for them in this strange new culture, but Beijing wasn’t as strange as I’d expected. It’s modern and similar to a lot of other cities around the world, which comforted us at first, but later gave way to a sadness that something was being lost forever, as the city centre’s Hutongs are pulled down and the people relocated to the suburbs.
Beaulea is a classic cute-little-girl and hit it off with our guide, Rebekah, immediately and, although she didn’t look her best for the first couple of days as jet-lag took its toll, we quickly found that a sickly eight year-old, projectile-vomiting into a bin (she’s well trained, and ran straight for it) is a sure-fire way to get rid of Beijing’s beggars and hawkers. But once she’d cleaned herself up and wiped the sick off her clothes, she began to draw the crowds again.
I think it started in the Forbidden City, our first port of call, when people stopped us and gestured with their cameras at our perplexed children. Usually, they had children of their own and, if proof were needed that children everywhere are alike, they looked as miffed and embarrassed as you’d expect your own to be if asked to pose with a couple of complete strangers. You could see “What for?!” written on their faces, without having to understand a word of Mandarin. Meanwhile, Brett and Beaulea were chuffed with their new celebrity status, even if they didn’t understand it.
The high point came in Beijing’s famous zoo (famous for its Panda’s only, I’m afraid, not for its modernity). We had been wandering for an hour or so in searing heat, when we sat on a bench to rest. Within seconds, the first family waved their camera at the kids, so we obliged as usual.
Naturally, this caused a bit of a distraction and there was soon a small queue of families forming, to take pictures of ours. I don’t recall seeing any queues to take pictures of the resident animals!
The Japanese were just as fascinated. Although I think their innate reserve and politeness prevented many from approaching, one woman did venture to ask us outside the Sensoji Temple in Tokyo. After the now well-practised ritual, the lady delved into her shopping bag and produced a book and a toy and presented them to Brett and Beaulea.
After initially trying to say “Oh, no, you mustn’t”, we realised she might be offended if we refused her gifts, so we accepted with profuse thanks, betraying our own surprise at such politeness and generosity. What her children must have made of Mum giving away their toys, I have no idea, but there were no tantrums. Politeness, it seems, can be learned early.
The thought that remains with us, is of the number of photo albums in the homes of ordinary Chinese and Japanese people, containing pictures of our kids. No doubt they talk about them as enthusiastically as they took their photographs. Oh, to be a fly on the wall!
