I guess I'm a model

Let let me do a recap of events from the last few days:

Saturday evening I get a call from my friend Susan asking if I could help do something in a few days. She mostly asked me if I was free on Tuesday (I was) and she said she would give me the details later. As a foreigner in China, this seems quite typical; often we are asked to do things and details are rarely given. Often we meet with others to tutor English, do school events, or just show up to an activity as a foreigner (which I am pretty good at considering that when I am in China, I am quite foreign). Susan is one of the first people I met here in China and has had me do a few things; usually just help with a few English things, or help tutor someone. I assumed what she wanted me to do on Tuesday would be something of that nature.

On Monday night, Susan sent me a text saying that "someone" would meet me "somewhere" near the school at 7:10 am and that I should wear jeans, a grey shirt and leather shoes. Those are the details I was given. Considering the dress standards, I now thought I was probably going to a show or meeting with other people wearing a similar uniform. Perhaps I would hand out fliers or just talk to people at a booth or something of that nature. Susan did tell me that the person (assistant) who would meet me would give me more details. I did find out though for the event, I would get paid 600RMB (almost $95 USD). Good enough for me.

Tuesday was the day of the "event" (whatever it was). And I got a call from Susan's assistant. I expected to speak with her in English but she only spoke Chinese. Instead of meeting in front of the school as planned, she had to direct me by phone to meet up with her. I was able to eventually meet up with her and we were able to catch the next bus to the yet undisclosed location. On the bus I asked her what was going on and what I would be doing and she admitted that she didn't really know for sure. The bus ride was an adventure by itself. It was rush hour traffic and took about an hour and forty minutes. That is 1:40 of standing on a crowded and stuffy bus. The bus got so full that during some stops, the bus driver had to start turning people away. Fun times.

When the bus made its last stop, we had arrived at the convention center in Zhengzhou. At this point I was still trying to figure out what was going on. I was surprised with how many people there were. I didn't think I would be doing anything for a big event. Once we arrived, we met with another girl, Sabrina from Brazil. I was nice to speak English with someone who might know what was going on. She didn't though (what was going on that is; her English was great). She was much in the same position as me and just asked to help out.

After waiting around for about an hour, we met up with a boss man of sorts. The assistant (Christy) talked to the boss guy and we eventually were able to get out of the heat and walk into the convention center. We were at an auto fair of sorts and could see many booths that sold car parts and accessories. Honestly, it seemed like a pretty boring trade show. Perhaps if I cared for cars, I would have found it interesting. At any rate, it was nice to be inside a place that was a bit cooler than outside.

We eventually got to our booth. It was a Dunlop booth. It was quite a large booth with a jumbo screen, TV cameras, car seats set up with fur seat covers, and a catwalk. Yep. A catwalk running through the middle of the place. Apparently we were going to be models; no handing out of fliers necessary. Yay. Me and Sabrina both got a pretty good chuckle when they told us (all in Chinese of course) that we would be modeling. Definitely not something expected.

They had us go into the back of the stage where me met the other models that they hired. All of the models were female, and none of them were shorter than 6'1." It was pretty weird for me to be in a room full of girls and being the shortest person. Definitely a first for me. I had to laugh when they started handing out fur coats to all of the girls. Then they handed one to me and it wasn't funny any more. Wearing a fur coat was another first for me. I am not really sure if it was a men's coat or not (do they even have fur coats for men?) but I sure didn't feel too manly wearing it. They gave me a man purse too. Nothing kills masculinity more than carrying around a purse and knowing that it is for you and not a girl. As if that was not shameful enough, they had us walk to another building to do the first modeling show. The building was a good 5+ minute walk from where we were. Let's see. 90+ degree heat with 70+ humidity outside wearing a fur coat = uncomfortable. Actually, the fur coat did feel quite nice, but to give a gross understatement, it was a bit warm.

We ended up doing three shows and one photo session. This is how it would work: We would first put on the fur coats and show off our coats and fur purses. Sabrina would walk out first, followed by me, then by the five Chinese models (maybe there were six... they all seemed pretty similar to me). The fur coats, purses and seat covers were with one company (I don't remember the name). The other company we modeled for was Dunlop. We would change into our Dunlop clothes and walk out carrying tennis and badminton rackets and other random Dunlop things that I had not idea were made by Dunlop (like flashlights and chargers).

Saying this was a bit awkward does not quite capture how I felt. It was totally weird walking out on the catwalk and posing. When I walked back to the stage, I could see myself on the jumbo screen. (Incidentally, I don't get to look at the top or back of my head much, but this provided a pretty good opportunity for that. Seems as though I might be balding :) The whole Chinese/English language barrier made things a bit weird at first as well. It was hard to know exactly what they wanted me to do. I tried to figure out how I was supposed to walk or pose, but my Chinese is not really that good to get detailed descriptions on posture. I thought maybe I could just emulate the real models, but being the only guy I thought it might be safer if I didn't walk and pose exactly how the girls did. Who knows... wearing a fur coat and a purse, walking like a girl probably would not have looked all that out of place.

Fortunately, I don't think models are really supposed to look directly at people or smile, so it was pretty easy for me to ignore the people recording and taking photos. There were a handful of professional photographers and about three to four video cameras at times (one of the cameras was on those crane like things so it could go up in the air. What is that called anyway?). There were always plenty of spectators (?) taking pictures with their point and shoot cameras or cell phones. Weird.

The most awkward time was when all the catwalking was done, they asked me and Sabrina to pose for pictures. We spent about 20-30 minutes just posing for cameras. I was interested in seeing what the photographers did and how they worked, but other than that, it was just odd. They gave me a few different man purses (murses?) to model. I didn't know what I was supposed to (or not supposed to) look at. I figured they would just take plenty of pictures and sort it out. The photographers did set up a few different posed shots, but mostly we just did our own things and hoped it looked legit.

All in all, it was a very odd, awkward, hot and interesting day. Wearing fur in the summer is not exactly the funnest thing to do. The modeling part wasn't all that bad because I didn't really know anyone. As far as I know, there wasn't anyone laughing at me when I walked out. It was interesting for me to get an idea of what the life of a model would be like. The models all seemed nice and they were fun to talk to; it didn't really seem like they really enjoyed their jobs heaps. I think the job is draining, not because it is difficult, but perhaps because it is so.... not difficult. It doesn't really require much (to be fair though, I am not a model and I am sure I did things weird; perhaps walking and posing correctly is a difficult thing to do). Mostly it was just a lot of sitting around and waiting. If it were the middle of winter, I probably would have enjoyed it more. The money was not too bad considering I didn't really do anything.

Yay for modeling.

Warning: The photos you will see below are for entertainment (mockery) purposes only and are not to be used in any way, shape or form as blackmail toward me.

This is with my man purse. We were showing off the seat covers.

All of the photographers were nice and fun to talk to. I was able to get this picture from the website www.lenscn.com

Too bad I didn't get to wear a fur cap like the girl on the screen. That would have sealed the deal. 

Dunlop logo. They actually had some really cool stuff. I wanted to take all of the tennis rackets home.

Turns out that mink fur is quite comfy. I would never wear it, but I am happy to know that minks probably live comfortable lives (that is when they are not being raised and killed for their fur). 

I liked sitting because it meant I could put the man purse down.

This is me with another man purse they gave me. So weird. Many Chinese men carry these around.

There were quite a few video cameras. Luckily, I don't think I will ever have to watch the videos....