Did you get fatter?

Hi everyone, happy new year! I just sent an email with a link to our Christmas photos on Flickr, so check those out. In the meantime I thought you would think this is funny. It's from a blog by a Chinese-American medical student (resident?) called The Underwear Drawer. Recognize this scenario?:

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So every time we get together as a big family unit, invariably on holidays or for other special occasions, my grandmother (who I must note loves Joe to pieces, though they lack the ability to communicate meaningfully because she speaks only Chinese and he is A White Man) at some point in the festivities will turn to Joe and ask:

"DID YOU GET FATTER?"

She isn't saying it to be mean, and it's actually not as rude as it sounds. You just have to understand--the Asians, they are obsessed with weight. Who got fatter, where the fat has been deposited, who got skinnier, who is too skinny, who is not eating enough, what have you. But then it presents something of a quandary for me, because I am the unofficial translator as well as diplomat of Sino-American relations, and as I have been providing running commentary up until this point of my grandmother's cheerful yammering, WHAT DO I SAY NOW?


MICHELLE
(To Joe)
She says you look healthy.

GRANDMOTHER
(In Chinese, pointing to Joe)
DID HE GET FATTER?

JOE
Thank you! You look wonderful too!

GRANDMOTHER
(Chinese)
HE DID! HE DID GET FATTER!
(Pantomimes chubby cheeks with her hands)

JOE
Is she saying I'm fat?

MICHELLE
No! No! She's saying you look robust and alive with pleasure!

GRANDMOTHER
(To my parents, in Chinese)
HE DID GET FATTER, DIDN'T HE?

MICHELLE
You're not fat.

JOE
I'll be in the car.