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undeserving chest

kachibi

Senior Member
Chinese
Context: a passage about a celebrity telling how to treat his fans.

How ought I to treat those fans who approached me? I switched on a sweet gentle smile and practiced a kind of "Who?...me?" gesture that involved looking behind me and then pointing with questioning disbelief at my own undeserving chest.

What is the meaning of the bold words?
It's a display of false modesty/humility - pointing at himself as if to say, "Who, me? What have I done to deserve your attention?"
chest /tʃɛst/ n. [countable]
  1. the front portion of the body enclosed by the ribs; thorax:
un•de•serv•ing /ˌʌndɪˈzɜrvɪŋ/ adj.
  1. not deserving:
...the front of my own body. I didn't deserve such attention.
He pointed at his chest, but it was himself as a person that was underserving (or this is the impression that he wanted to convey), not specifically his chest. This is a transferred epithet.
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