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Adventures with my beard

By Joseph Christian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-30 08:13

My father's Italian ancestry has blessed and cursed me with a thick, coarse, dark beard; the kind of beard that requires constant shaving, snipping and plucking to keep me from becoming something akin to "an American werewolf in China". However, without my properly named Mr Scruffy I am convinced my life would be much duller than it is.

Most of the time, back home in the States, my five o'clock shadow was of little concern. After all, most men had one, but in China it is a different story. It is not my skin or eyes that draw the most attention; it's my beard.

Even though Beijing is a cosmopolitan city, on many occasions while riding the subway I look up from my book to find a passenger staring directly at my face. "Maybe they are looking at my blue eyes," I think to myself. But no, as I slowly turn to inspect their gaze, I once again find that it falls squarely on the hairs of my chin.

At times it can be annoying, but usually the unique interactions my beard attracts are well worth it. Although I must admit that on more than one occasion my beard has aroused suspicions that I am a terrorist. This is by no means a fun position to be in, but it is quite an eye-opener as to the reality of how prejudice works.

One time after finishing a job interview in Beijing the woman who was interviewing me put down her pen and looked at me in stone-faced seriousness. "Can I ask you a personal question?" she said. "Ok," I responded as I rolled my eyes knowing full well what the question would be...after all I hadn't shaved that morning.

"Is your family from the Middle East?" she said as her eyes probed me for any signs of deceit.

"No. And why would you ask such a question?" I said looking back at her with equal candor.

"Are you sure?" she asked again

"I am pretty sure," I almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

"OK, I just wanted to make sure you aren't dangerous," she said in a relieved voice.

To be fair, I can't say that this is an experience unique to China, even back in my native America my beard has been met with suspicion. Almost every time I have taken a flight in America with a beard, goatee, or heavy stubble, I have been searched or interrogated with an endless stream of questions by worried airport security officers. Of course, when I am clean-shaven such things miraculously never happened.

But getting back to China, I often sit at home and try to understand the significance and meaning a beard has for young adults in China today. After all, as a university teacher the majority of my interactions are with my students. If my experiences have taught me any thing about these youths, it is that the men envy my beard and the women hate it.

Many young Chinese men seem to equate a beard with manhood. So in their eyes I am very manly. I remember one time when a young freshman student, peach fuzz clinging to his upper lip, came to me after class and quietly whispered, "Teacher you look like a real man." Or another time when I was sporting a goatee, a heavy-set male student jumped up, his hands tightly gripping a dictionary, and blurted out, "My dear teacher, you look so sexy and dashing!"

No matter how hard I work to dispel the notion that a beard makes you a "true man" I will probably always be asked by young Chinese men for advice on how to make their beard grow thicker.

However, any illusions such praise from Chinese men might give me are quickly shattered by the reactions of the fairer sex.

One day, while sporting a beard, I entered a class of mostly female students to be greeted by gasps of horror. As you might guess, their comments were even less favorable. "You look like a monkey," one girl immediately said upon seeing me. Then after class at least five separate girls came to me and requested that I shave. "You looked much better before, we can't accept you like this," they told me.

Maybe in the end people always want what they don't have and dislike what they view as different. But as far as my beard goes, I don't plan to do away with it any time soon. Otherwise, how would I have such interesting interactions? It's not everyday that you can be a dashing terrorist monkey.