Whew! Sorry for the tardiness, folks. I was monkeying with putting together a slideshow for ya—and it’s good!
It might be the single, most powerful image to humans: the face.
In it we see so much; and from it we react so much. Ever examine your feelings when seeing different faces? It’s incredible how the subtle changes and appearance of a face can affect us.
From familiarity, relief, and comfort from a loved one’s face; to tenseness, anxiety, and even horror from an unfamiliar or threatening one. And apart from these extremes are countless areas in-between. We recognize the tells of an expressionless face: one’s age, their experiences, scars, weathering, softness, tone, mood—we get to know them with this one image, maybe even know some of their story.
The face is universal. The gestures: head tilts, head nods, head back, head forward; smiles, grimaces, scowls, frowns, stares, squints, ogles, glares, glances, sneers, sighs, eye-rolls, winks, blinks, raised eyebrows, jaw-drops, jaws clenched, peers, pouts, puckers
This post is the first of two, and each features a slideshow for you offering a look at all the looks I got from the people I met. 
This post is devoted to the faces I met all year, all over as I traveled around the country.
Enjoy!
With all the variations in faces mentioned at the top and seen throughout this slideshow, it’s a wonder we always talk about Chinese all looking alike! It goes to show the countless experiences and interactions one can have even in a homogeneous country like China.
My next post is a slide-show revealing this variety not just all over the country, but from within one city and my home in China: Zhuhai.
Variety is everywhere! And there’s no better way to see it than by looking at it straight in the eye. It’s a big world, folks. Go check it out one face at a time.
to New Plateaus:
-Brandon