Besides the obvious
oxymoronical nature of the words "
Chinese" and "
Tall" being the main operative
adjectives in a phrase, there are some other odd points of interest in being the living
paradox. Example, my last few trips to the People's Republic of
China:
Picture a
street with a sea of
black hair bobbing up and down at approximately five and a half feet, with
troughs and
crests ranging five inches above and below the
mean. Then you will see an
outlier cutting through this sea,
breathing more easily than his
vertically challenged brethren. At six feet and five inches, he receives stares of
shock,
disgust and
awe simultaneously. Some apologies muttered quickly, trying to hide their rude gasps of surprise. Some people (this being China, and not the streets of
New York City) walk up to this
inhuman freak of nature and ask him hesitantly, "Do you play
basketball?" There is hope in their voices as they picture the end of the United States'
reign in
Olympic basketball. These
dreams are smashed as the
mutant replies in
broken Chinese that he does but is, in fact, an American. The
sneers are indescribably
disheartening.
But take solace in the fact that the air is fresher and more open at 77 inches from the ground level than around 66 inches.