People, it's official. I could put myself on one level with Melissa McCarthey or Johnny Depp. People keep staring at me on the street, in stores, they come over to say Hi to only giggle totally ashamed as I reply, they come up ASKING FOR A PICTURE! No kidding. It seems like Kaukasians are some sort of exotic specie to the Chinese and as soon as they meet on they have to make sure to capture this moment for eternity. Haha, it's hilarious. A whole group of teenage girls, maybe about 6 or 7 of them, came up to me as I was riding a totally silly bike in a theme park I visited together with my hostfamily and friends yesterday. Together with the housekeeper I was strolling along all the rides and eateries when those girls all greeted me overexcitedly. If I would allow them to take a picture of me. Looking totally exhausted and sweaty from riding this heavy bike around for already 2 hours, oh yes, please have my pretty picture! Those girls were totally into it - each one wanted a single picture and for sure a group picture, but please with the own Iphone so it can be shared immediately. They were really cute though and I had fun posing with them for some pictures. Asking them why they wanted to take a picture of me one (whose English was pretty poor but still by far the best of all of them) replied - because you are beautiful. Aww. Let me give you a hug for this! What a push for the ego.
Now, the second time I was strolling around a huge shopping mall in Chengdu close to the central Tianfu Square, when 4 ladies from a cosmetic shop on the right came up to me complinenting me on how beautiful I looked and how pretty and big my eyes were. Then I started to realize. Maybe it's really the eyes that Chinese keep admiring so much at Kaukasians. As the typical Chinese have narrow eyes, people with what I would consider as with "normal sized" eyes, are really special to them. So this might be the fame factor. I guess I found it. But I will keep asking all the people asking for a picture. I will present you my statistic on the Ronja fame factor in 6 months :-)