Touched by a Tailor: what happens when you buy a suit in China.

If the hairstylists can't meet my need for appropriate physical touch, I just need to get a bunch of suits made. So, yeah. My reasoning is that since I'm going back to America for a while, I'm going to need some professional looking clothes to wear every day. My current wardrobe is well into the business casual zone and doesn't do much to prevent me from being mistaken for a student. There's also the strong ulterior motive of really wanting a nice purple shirt, since they are severely in vogue right now. I've been holding off in having a suit made because hope springs eternal of continuing to lose weight. But, well, today I gave up. I went with my friend to have a suit made, hoping I would have enough money. Never having clothes custom made by someone else (I've made my own clothes long ago) I didn't know how much it would cost. Not too much, it turned out. 180 kuai, which, if the dollor holds out, less than 30 bucks.

But who cares? Wouldn't you rather hear about the awkward invasion of space part? Well, let me tell you that these professional people-touchers like hairdressers and tailors manage to minimize the awkwardness. The most interesting thing about Chinese tailors is that they use inches, not centimeters. I don't know why, but it means that I got to find out the circumference of my waist, hips, thigh, ribcage and chest. He read some of the numbers in astonishment. I rely more on predicting how people react to figure out what they are saying. I think his measuring efforts were somehow thwarted by my muffin-top. (Or as I like to call it, mantou top, since the color and consistency of my skin bears and amazing resemblance to Chinese steamed buns) So yeah, he had to touch my mantou skin. When the dude was measuring my waist, my train of thought was something like “Eh, hands up my shirt, eh? Not surprised. That was really quick.” Like I said, professional, like a clammy little machine.

The best thing about this place was it's location, actually. It's in the vegetable market near the hospital, so after the frisking, I went and bought some vegetables. Then walked home. What can I say? I love China. One of my love languages is physical touch. Do vegetables and walking count as love languages? I like those, too. Overall, a great day.