Big in China

Andy Warhol said everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.  Abigail has been enjoying minor celebrity status since we have been in China.  As we make our way through airports, public streets, tourist attractions, and restaurants, people have been constantly loving, and I mean LOVING, Abigail.  Random strangers point and smile at her.  Elderly people come up to her and tell us that she is lovely or give a universal “thumbs up” sign while pointing to her.  Parents of small children plant their kids next to her out of the blue and take their photos next to her like she is a Disney Princess at a theme park.  Elderly people walk up to her and hug her and stroke her hair, chatting away while smiling and nodding.  

The nannies at the orphanage couldn’t stop hugging her and taking her photos.  It was so extreme that we really thought people may have been mistaking her for a child star we weren’t familiar with.  Our guide told us that it merely comes down to the fact that many Chinese people don’t encounter foreigners very often and cute little foreign girls are even more exceptionally rare.  Abigail has taken her celebrity status in stride though and has been very sweet, gracious, and accommodating with everyone.  She has been quite the ambassador.  At the orphanage all the ladies told us that she reminded them of Halley Porter.  We quickly did a Google search for this star to see what she looked like, but came up empty.  After not finding anything, we asked for further clarification and they jumped on their phones to find photos for us.  We cracked up when they showed us the photo of the person they were comparing her to and it turned out to be Emma Watson from “Harry Potter” (Not Halley Porter). We took it as a compliment and we can see the resemblance if we look hard enough.  Maybe Abigail can play Hermoine in the Harry Potter prequel someday.  In the meantime, I’ll just have to get used to random strangers taking her pictures while I’m trying to take her pictures at the same time. J