Chinese people and Foreigners

We have lived in China for almost two years now and have loved it tremendously. The only thing that gets hard sometimes is getting used to being a foreigner or outsider in a place you call home. We haven't experienced too many stares or hard moments only times when people point out the obvious and yell out "waiguoren" which means foreigner and is directly translated as outsider. Well, having a child has changed that. Afew things you need to know:

1. Chinese people think foreigner children are gorgeous, especially those with blonde hair and blue eyes, which Maddy has.

2. Because of the communal culture to China they love to tell you how to hold your child and how to dress them.

3. Chinese culture says babies are not able to be out and around until they are one month old and the mother should be 100 days past birth before she is out in public.

So there is the background now here is what happened:

Yesterday we decided to take our brothers to the Imperial Palace in Shenyang. Shenyang originally was the capital of China before Beijing and has a palace where the rulers and their family used to live that is basically a mini version of the forbidden city in Beijing. So we decided to take the brothers and Maddy. Well, Maddy is only about 3 1/2 weeks old so we knew there could be some controversy since Chinese people will just come up and stare and ask but we decided to put her in the stroller and put a blanket over her. We were set to go. We arrived at the palace and it was near time for me to feed Maddy so I asked Nate to find me a quiet corner to feed her in and then he could leave me and take the brothers to look around a bit. He left me in this little corner and I began getting ready. Well, a few minutes passed and a Chinese woman walked up with a smile and I thought, "Ok. Just one woman isn't that bad". But then, she called her friend and her friend called a friend and on and on and on...By the end I had 4 women sitting with me at a table and 2 other ones who came up to me and were asking about my chart, how often she ate, if she ate on both sides or only one, if I was sure she was really almost one month or if I was mistaken. They carried on conversation after conversation as I am breastfeeding in public, under a wrap, praying that the wind will not catch my drape and expose me to everyone. One girl asked if she could see my baby and I told her she would need to wait until she was finished eating so she walked up to her boyfriend and told him he needed to sit with her and wait for 15 minutes until my baby was finished eating so she could see her. By the end of it all I was a little overwhelmed and then I saw Nathan coming back and I gave him the look above, "Help me!" which he caught on film. I do have to say that Nate did come and sit with me and I was grateful for that and for a few of the older women who tried to help ensure that my drape didn't fly up and expose me.