Night Out

Night on the town (pictured: Wang Xize, Me, Brazilian exchange student)

Last night was a lot of fun. There were many happenings around the area in which we walked. There was some kind of Beauty contest going on outside a department store, old ladies getting their night-tim eexcercise in by dancing to a strange blend of Chinese and Western music. As for us, we went window shopping and finally ended up at this hole-in-the-wall photobooth store.

I have never encountered such a thing.

When you walk in people are sitting down looking at books and writing down numbers, along the walls are curtained areas, you can hear laughing and shouting. Mainly young people. My friend Wang Xize (pictured above) explained that for 5 yuan you pick a set of eight backgrounds from those books for your photos. After writing down the numbers beneath each desired background on a small slip of paper, hand them to the clerk and she will punch in the backgrounds for you. Then the fun begins!!

Each curtained off area is of course a photobooth! We crammed four people into one!

The backgrounds that you select always have a spot where your face(s) should appear, and the photobooth machine automatically centers it for you so you needn't worry about awkward movements within the confined space.

Backgrounds include:

a face space next to a popular anime/manga (japanese comic) character's image

a face space next to a photo of famous moviestars (Chinese and foreign)

a face space that is positioned so it appears that you are on the cover of a magazine

a face space in between the legs of a scantily clad woman

a face space near your favorite hello kitty, morning glory character etc.

a face space in front of famous scenic areas throughout China and the world

(In one picture I took it looks as though I am about to swallow a very famous Tibetan monestary).

And after all the photos are printed by an ordinary household computer you swap photos with friends!