Not being the focus

I like learning Chinese. It's great to learn how to speak and see that I can understand more and more. But my big struggle at the moment, is that I'm not a fan of having all the learning material be about me. I would prefer to learn the vocab, grammar, etc. and practice using it in different contexts, but instead, I have to answer questions directed at me. Even as I'm writing this, it doesn't seem strange or odd, maybe it's just after a year about answering questions from everything to: "why don't you get your hair cut more often," "how much do you usually pay for a hair cut, do you think that's a lot, how much do you think I pay for mine, where do you go, why are your eyelashes so long, why is your tummy sticking out, why are foreign clothes better made and how much was your shirt, when did you get it, that's nice eye-shadow, to what did you do yesterday, the day before, how long where you there for, what are you doing over the break, where are you going, where are you going, where are you going,!!? etc. etc. etc."
One question in itself wouldn't be a big deal, but when it happens often, I end up not wanting to talk about myself and not actually wanting to talk about my eyeshadow! I think there are more important things to talk about! I think Chinese people are naturally curious. I know that a lot of this is cultural. When we first arrived, people I had never met before would just start off saying to me, "how much is your rent, where do you live, etc." Not a "hello," just "where do you live and what do you pay for it." It took me by surprise but now I've learned I don't actually have to tell them!

So I know that curiosity is cultural, but part of me just wants to put the focus on someone other than me. So the difficulty sets in when I don't want to answer the questions about myself or talk about where I bought my shoes, how much they cost, etc. I've tried changing the subject, talking about other things, not answering questions that I know are just purely asked out of curiosity-sake, etc. But well, it's not really working. It actually makes them more curious and I get more frustrated. You see, I'm being tutored so it's just me and the teacher. I have told them that it's not necessarily our cultural norms to be asked about price on everything (shirts, shoes, jeans, rent, etc.) I don't often buy clothes, but sometimes I'll show up to class in a shirt they haven't seen and the first question is "how much was your shirt." I then have to think, I've had this for three years, I don't remember and to be honest, I don't really want to tell them how much I paid for it (because then I always have to do the same thing). We moved past those questions when I explained how normally between friends we don't ask prices of everything in my culture. I know we're in China, and I'm trying to find ways to answer the questions, but I don't think the answer is always to give them the answers they want. And besides, it gets on my nerves. I just want to have a class without having to talk about myself, or my family and what we did, who we were there with, how long we spent there, etc.

I think my teachers are lovely and part of the reason to deflect all the questions is because I don't want them to mistake their value. We talked about my eyelashes and suddenly one of my teachers started wearing fake-eyelashes. (And that was actually a conversation I avoided !) Who said that long eyelashes are actually better than shorter ones? God made them Chinese and they are beautiful. We're different, but both are made in God's image. Do they need to buy jeans like me? No! Do they need to do the same things that I do, of course not! Is it healthy for them to hear every superficial detail of my life so that they can compare it to theirs?

I'd rather just talk about other things, with more meaning, Chinese history, culture (without it being compared back to me). Call me hyper-sensitive at the moment. I don't know. It's just after a year of this, I'm looking for change and the difficult part is knowing how to bring it about. I've tried the direct and indirect approach and well, neither way has really worked. But my frustration sometimes comes out, so I need to find a solution.

Am I over-analyzing this? How would you feel in my place? And how would you respond?
Off to study... class-time soon. Just needed to express all that. :)