A few days ago, my little sister surprised my family and me with tickets to the Kunming Acrobatic Circus of China. Little sister, you know? That brat that suddenly appeared to get all the attention that used to be yours? The one that took the “play” out of your playroom and placed her “bed” instead? Well, in the meantime, that brat has turned into a quite succesful tv actress. Really, harassing fans, tabloid articles and everything.
When I say harassing, I mean… well, a picture is (or was, before the financial crisis) worth a thousand words right? So let me just show you what I saw.
She was first asked to talk to the media.
Then they asked for an interview. The cameras started attracting the attention of people around us.
Kids started to pop out of nowhere, circling their prey.
I actually caused this. There was a small kid waiting for 20 minutes and I asked my sister if she wanted to sign his brochure. By the time she finished, this was the scene.
All hell broke loose.
In the end, she had to be hidden in the First Aid tent until the show started, which of course was 30 minutes later than the time they wrote on the tickets. “It’s to give time so that more people can arrive” they say. Few things upset me as much as that statement.
While my sister’s tension was increasing and I was capturing every single moment of it with my mobile phone, I realised it all felt very bizarre. This is someone I’ve known most of my life and now, suddenly, everybody knows her. To us, her family, nothing has changed, yet all eyes are now on her. Changes like this happen all the time, to all kinds of people. Something unexpected happens and a whole chain of events follows immediately, changing things even more. It reminded me of how I had my own chain of events which started with me practising english online and ended with me moving to the Netherlands. This time though, it’s not about me but about her. Her chain of events has brought her, so far, professional success and the recognition she has worked for. As for me, well …it is just highly entertaining.
Returning to the origin 