Foreign kids in Beijing

I really try to avoid discussions of the family policy of my host country. This wasn't too difficult living where I did in Shenzhen, as it was rarely an issue presented to me. I've mentioned before that in the neighborhood where we lived last year, many of the Chinese families were also two-child families. Of course, outside of that upper-middle class garden, we likely did encounter more one-child families, but still, as a topic of conversation with Chinese families it seldom came up, perhaps only once or twice in almost three years. One very notable exception was when we were vacationing in Guilin and people asked us about it a few times, with at least one person there trying to put me on the defensive because we only had one child. Of course, that was a particularly hard position to be put in at that time because we lost Maeve earlier that year.

Beijing has been a different story. Or, to be more specific, Changping has been different story. I have no idea sometimes if I am in Real Beijing (few foreigners) or in Not Really Beijing (urban, but not cosmopolitan). Since we arrived in Changping I've frequently heard people comment as we walk by about how I have two kids, or rather, that foreigner can (keyi) have two kids. Or they'll see Myles running around, tell me he is cute or whatever, and then realize the stroller is not empty. Then the usual declaration is a very surprised, "Hai you yi ge!" There's another one!
And then the occassional, "are they both yours?"

This afternoon, though, the situation could have been very tense. A couple of women were admiring Brigid and her ability to smile on command in Chinese (Gei ayi xiao yi ge!). Then one of them asked me whether I paid something. Actually, I thought she was asking me if I bought something, because the word mai (third tone) can be used in expressions that in English we say buy. I apologised, and she repeated herself slowly, and then it was clear. With two kids, she asked, did I have to pay the fine (she hui fu yang fei).

That was a question I was in no way prepared to answer. I certainly didn't want to remind her that this contentious law didn't apply to foreigners. I fortunately had the truth at my disposal, so I didn't have to create a believable lie. "She was born in Hong Kong. She's a Hong Kong person." This was met with some physical gesture of understanding.

At that I told her we had to be going, and I assuaged my anxiety with that magic elixir, coffee, at our little coffee shop under the KTV.