I just finished reading Hong Huang’s opinion piece in the China Daily entitled, “Dear laowai, don’t mess with our Chinese-ness” and I can’t figure it out.
What I’d like to think, based on Hong’s reputation, is that it is self-depreciating humour actually directed at Chinese about Chinese superiority and penchants for stereotypes. If this is the [...]
Archive for the ‘China Expat Rants’ Category
Hong Huang tells laowai, ‘don’t assume you can be one of us’
Laowai homecoming — mass-transit misery
I’ve been home in Canada for a little more than a week, and am already beginning to rub up against the things that run different from my laowai life in China.
And while we’ve covered this topic a few times on the blog, I felt like using this post as an opportunity to reach out to [...]
Pandemic on the Streets! Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Start Loving the Vaccine
I’m going to be honest. I don’t really know how to write an introduction for this. You all know the story by now. H1N1 is going around and it is either a media creation or a harbinger of the apocalypse. So I would like to apologize in advance if I am further flooding the blogosphere with this topic. So I would like to warn you in advance. This is a post about the H1N1 vaccine. If you are tired of the topic please turn elsewhere. I won’t be offended.
Recently the Centre for Disease Control decided to offer the vaccine, which is in limited supply, to the graduating classes and teachers of local and private schools. As a teacher at an international school I was offered the choice to get vaccinated or not. On Wednesday I decided to get the shot for a number of reasons.
On Tyranny
“For we have a right to choose the society most acceptable to us”
– John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Before I came to China I was asked a series of questions which seemed normal at the time but now seem completely laughable. They included “Is there a curfew?”, “Are there police everywhere?”, and “You’ll be careful, right?”. Clearly my friends and family had seen the tanks in Tienanmen, and heard Richard Gere’s thoughts about Tibet. So I don’t blame them for their concern, it is touching. But it is also on the complete opposite end of how my experiences in China have been so far.
Searching for Real China
Last night I was watching the season premiere of 30 Rock. In the episode Jack says that their television show has lost touch with “Real America” to which Liz responds “all of America is real” . This comment is of course ignored as most of the rest of the episode is spending trying to reconnect with the heartland of America, including a part where Jenna signs a country song for NBC’s Tennis coverage that says “Kiss my ass New York, it’s tennis night”.
Sure their shirking of major cities in favour of a rural demographic was mostly done in jest, but it really rings true to how we treat China. How many people do you hear refer to Shanghai or Tianjing as not “REAL China”, or mention some small town in Anhui or Hunan as a great example of “REAL China”?
In my short time here I have really gotten confused as to what exactly in this country is real, and what is fake. I think that I used to know what constituted “real China” but the more layers I peel off in my search to learn more about this place the more confused I am.
The Great Firewall: longer, higher, meaner
Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and more: all blocked in China
Bad news: that’s getting worse, and this time there’s no identifiable reason.
Giving Thanks To China
Today is a special day in Northern North America, Canadian Thanksgiving. While it is (not surprisingly) less of a big deal for us than it will be in about six weeks for our neighbours to the south, it is still an important day on the calendar. While I won’t be heading to mom’s for a big feast, it doesn’t mean that I’m not thankful for several things. And since this is a blog centred around life in China, I thought that I would take a minute or two to make a list of things that I would like to thank China for. I would love to here what any of you out there in Comment Land have to add to this list.
So in no particular order, I would like to give Chin a big thanks for….
Time for the Associated Press to buy a decent map
The other day I wrote a quick post about how pneumonic plague had infected and killed residents in a small community in Qinghai province.
My post was meant mostly as a joke, as my friend Glen was in Qinghai and complaining about being ill. However, there’s nothing funny about pneumonic plague. Now several more people have [...]
Chinese Graduates’ Lives Destroyed by Manila Envelopes
I recently read this NYT article on missing student records and became infuriated. In short, the article is about recent graduates from various universities, who came from poor families, worked incredibly hard to set the foundations for their futures, only to find that their entire academic records (high school grades, college grades, test scores, proof [...]
Block Block Block, Blockity Block
I went to the supermarket today, but was blocked at the entrance by some dude checking his receipt and yelling at someone on his phone. Shrugged it off. Grabbed my gear and headed for the bus stop, but was blocked by some old lady super excited to bear witness to China’s mass-transit system in motion. [...]
