孪生

I have twins in one of my evening classes. Peter and Mark are identical in appearance and intellect; their only distinguishing characteristic (from the perspective of a teacher who only sees them thrice a week for an hour) is that Mark wears red-accented glasses and Peter wears white-accented glasses. Otherwise, they wear identical clothes (ubiquitous tracksuits that are standard-issue uniforms in all Chinese high schools), have identical hairstyles (a conservative Troll doll look), and speak for identical periods of time with identically-correct answers.

It's so odd to think of twins in the context of a post-One Child Policy China. I asked Peter (I think), "What is the biggest challenge of being a twin?" He promptly, perhaps tellingly, perhaps critically, replied, "Often, our teachers cannot tell us apart."