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Life in China Must be thin and tall!
Life in China Must be thin and tall! | Must be thin and tall! |
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| China | |
| Saturday, 19 May 2007 | |
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Beijing Day 3 – Must be thin and tall! I got up at 7 AM this morning. I thought it was early. I am sure all of you think so. But I was actually the second to last person to get up (out of about 12?) and almost everyone was gone by then! The only person who was still asleep was the 11 year old girl who came for an audition – trying to get in the middle school part of the Beijing Dance Academy – accompanied by her mum. By the way, student dormitories in China are more or less like youth hostels in Britain except there are no bed bugs, so normally several of us share a room together. Led by this 11 year old girl's mum, I discovered a very cheap canteen (dining hall) – cheaper than the ones in the dance academy. It's inside the Socialism Institute, which is virtually next to this dance academy. We paid 3.6 yuan (about 24p) for 3 of us this morning. Actually, she paid – she fought and didn't let me pay. This 11 year old girl was told to do her morning stretch after breakfast. When I lifed my head up the next moment, I was shocked. She stood on one foot; the other foot was resting up on the edge of the upper bed. The line that her two legs had drawn was at least 180 degrees! And she looked very comfortable there. That was just her warm up!? Later on this evening, I heard the girl telling her mum that she was hungry, and her mum's answer was "you are not allowed to eat!" This caught my attention as Chinese mums are normally the opposite. They normally feed their children as much as possible. I lifted my head up looking at them, and the mum soon realised that I was looking for an answer. "She must stay thin these days". She meant during her daughter's audition period. There are four more auditions for this one school if her daughter makes it. "But she is skinny!" I said. It's true. "The thinner is better, especially these days." The girl's face looked unhappy, but understanding though. She was definitely not angry or annoyed. "May I have some fruit then?" the girl asked again. "No, they are sweet – sweet things make you fat." "No! Fruits don't make people fat! If there is one thing that doesn't make people fat, that's fruit!" I was maybe a bit too loud on delivering that line, but still. My words didn't change their minds. The girl ate nothing all evening. "Are all of the girls from your class this thin?" I asked another girl who's in her final year of her undergraduate course. "It depends on how high your 'professional spirit' is." She meant how seriously they treated their profession. "My daughter never eats dinner and she runs 30 minutes every night before bed. She's afraid of putting on weight," a mother of a first year student told me. ‘Must be thin!’ This phrase echoed in my head. But to be thin wasn't enough though. There was one more thing you need to be if you want to get into a place like the Beijing Dance Academy: "I am a bit worried," the mum of the 11 year old sighed. "Why?" I asked. "She is a bit too short…" "How high she needs to be?" "143 centimetres, but she is only 140…" It reminded me what my dance teacher used to tell me: "Wu Yanmei, if you were just five centimetres taller, I'd definitely send you to the Beijing Dance Academy." I wasn't tall enough to even try the Beijing Dance Academy. It was very painful for me at that time. Thin and tall, girls here are one shape – small face, long neck, long legs and skinny. The Beijing Dance Academy chooses its students very carefully. What about us? Like me, not as tall; like you, not as skinny. Are we really no good at dance at all, and do we not deserve to be trained in a place like this? MeiMei www.meimei.co.uk |
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