Reflections on China

Hello, friends. If you are reading this, then you have kept up with my blog far more faithfully than I. And for that I applaud you. I'm sorry to report that a general sense of laziness over came me in these last few weeks in China, and for that I must apologize. I started this endeavor with the intent to write daily entries, however it has been weeks since my last post. And now here I am, using my last few hours in the People's Republic of China to write a final entry. I came to China with the intent of reaching a competent fluency in Mandarin, and after three months of calling this place my home I realize that I have utterly failed in that attempt. However, that is not to say that progress was not made. Though I originally came to study the language, I stayed because of it's people. I will not remember Beijing for the grandeur of the Forbidden City nor for the architecture of the Great Wall and the Olympic Village. For me, Beijing holds something more. It is the home of two incredible people and their seven year old daughter, a particularly mischievous girl who answers to the name "Juicy." They have left me the deepest impression. My journey in China has ended, but the friendships I made have just begun. A new Great Wall has been built, but rather than separating, it has brought us together. Zai Jian, China!

Communication Compromised

Hello, my dear friends. It has been far too long since my last blog post and there is much to discuss. As for my absence, well as many of you already know, I was unable to access blogger even on my phone. I feared that the govenment had figured out my loophole to get past the censored sites, but as it turns out it was just a glitch in my phone. So hopefully, there should be no more problems. However, my inability to access any social networking website on a normal computer has increasingly become an even greater annoyance. The Great Firewall of China has blocked me from accessing facebook, twitter, blogger, youtube, and many American news websites. That's part of the downside of living in a communist nation I guess. The government controls or has a part in almost every facet of life here. For example, almost any place you go in Beijing, one or two guards are guaranteed to be stationed at its entrance. This includes grocery stores, malls, college campuses, and appartment complexes. What do they do? Nothing. They stand in uniform all day long doing nothing. However, with the outbreak of the swine flu, some guards randomly take temperatures before allowing entrance into the more touristy spots. What happens if you happen to have a fever? I don't know, but I don't want to find out. But for a nation so concerned about the outbreak of an influenza, they do a poor job of keeping things sanitary. Toilet paper is rarely supplied in public bathrooms. Soap dispensers are often empty. People don't cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. And I have witnessed two times chefs using the restroom and then not washing their hands. Yet, they think that a foreigner coming into China is the biggest threat to public health. I suppose this viewpoint of all things Chinese are good and all things foreign are bad is what makes life in China especially frustrating and particularly alienating sometimes. But this is the opinion they have, and it is what they have always known... or have been told. And the media perpetuates this idea. For example, once Dr. Tseng asked me about the 2008 Presidenial Election. He said, during the race it was reported that over 40 percent of Americans wanted to kill Obama. Litterally wanted him dead. He then asked me why. And I was put in the awkward and delicate position of trying to find the best way to tell him he was being lied to. I finally settled with saying that that was untrue and that the reporter must have gotten their facts wrong. Chinese good, foreign bad.