Check out this outstanding collection of photos:
Going Home for Chinese New Year
Happy Chinese New Year!
Much like Thanksgiving and Christmas here in the US, the Chinese have a tradition of returning home for their major holiday, called Spring Festival in Chinese (you most likely know it as “Chinese New Year”). The difference is that in America, about 40 million people hit the road for Thanksgiving, compared to 230 million people hitting, well, mainly the rails for Spring Festival in China . Below is a link to a great slide show from the Guardian depicting what this looks like at one of Beijing’s main train stations.
Beauty and Truth
If you’ve never seen Makoto Fujimura’s art work you’ve been missing out. Check out this powerful video on combining beauty and truth through art.
“We, today, have a language to celebrate waywardness, but we do not have a language, a cultural language, to bring people back home.” – Fujimura
Powerful.
More Snow in Changchun!
It snowed AGAIN in Changchun yesterday; another “big snow,” as it’s called in Chinese. I don’t know why this is so amazing to me. Maybe it’s because I’m sitting here in Louisville enjoying the 70 degree weather and and the last bit of beautiful fall colors. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that if I were in Changchun I’d already be wearing winter gear and doing the penguin walk in order to avoid slipping and falling. Crazy. I remember it did snow there in November last year, but for some reason it just seems way to early to be in the throes of winter. 加油，长春朋友们！(Hang in there, Changchun friends!)
Here are some shots of the latest snow:
Snow in Changchun
Changchun, the city where I spent my last four years in China, has already had their first snow. If the temperature stays below freezing (as it likely will), this stuff could be with them until April! I feel for them… Louisville’s high today is 68F. Here are some news pictures of what Changchun looks like right now:
Funny News from China
Every now and then I like to read China’s official English newspaper, the China Daily, usually just for kicks. My favorite section is a tiny column which, when it shows up at all, is usually buried somewhere deep inside the paper. It’s called “China Scene” and basically gives interesting news snippets from news sources around the country. These tiny snippets can often be seen as a microcosm for what’s happening in the country as a whole, and that’s what usually makes them interesting.
Today I read one, though, that just falls in the category of “Ok, I don’t have a category for that.” (That actually happens to be my biggest “category” for life in China, but that’s another story.) Here’s what I read today:
Two caught trying to board train with intoxicated cat
Two passengers from Gansu province were caught trying to board a train in Baotou, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, with a drunken cat earlier this month.
The passengers later admitted to forcing liquor down the cat’s throat so that it would pass out in a bag.
The two were caught when security check at the railway station detected the cat in one of their bags.
The police asked them to leave without their pet.
(Northnews.cn)
That’s some cat-love for ya. (I’m assuming they knocked it out so they could bring the little guy with them without getting caught.) Imagine the X-ray technician’s reaction at the security check… “Is that…? A cat?” And now I have new China-knowledge: Do not to try to bring an animal with you on the train. Check. Next?
Shooting
Being home on sabbatical has afforded me some great opportunities to learn some new things. Some of you may know that I’m taking piano lessons, trying to see how far I can get in a year’s time. Well, something else I’ve done recently was take a short photography class. I’m a classic example of a person whose camera is smarter than them. I’m out to change all that, though, and am now trying to take pictures, or “shoot,” as the pros call it, in full manual mode. That’s right, from here on out, I’m calling the shots. Take that, fancy SLR camera!
Anyway, so far the results have been, well, mixed. Turns out making my camera see things that my eye sees perfectly is more difficult than I imagined. That being said, I’ve had a few decent shots recently and so I thought I’d share them. Below are a few examples:
Check out more shots at my Smugmug gallery: Indianapolis Fall Colors
Quote from Peter Hessler’s “Country Driving”
I’ve been reading a new book about China by Peter Hessler called “Country Driving,” and I really like it. He’s got a way of describing things about life in China that sometimes makes me wonder if he’s been in my head. Here’s a quote that hit me hard one day:
The longer I lived in China, the more I worried about how people responded to rapid change. This wasn’t an issue of modernization, at least not in the absolute sense; I never opposed progress. I understood why people were eager to escape poverty, and I had a deep respect for their willingness to work and adapt. But there were costs when this process happened so fast. Often the problems were subtle–this was hard to recognize as an outsider. In the West, newspaper stories about China tended to focus on the dramatic and the political, and they emphasized the risk of instability, especially the localized protests that often occurred in the countryside. But from what I saw, the nation’s greatest turmoil was more personal and internal. Many people were searching; they longed for some kind of religious or philosophical truth, and they wanted a meaningful connection with others. They had trouble applying past experiences to current challenges. Parents and children occupied different worlds, and marriages were complicated–rarely did I know a Chinese couple who seemed happy together. It was all but impossible for people to keep their bearings in a country that changed so fast.
New Format
Well, I signed into my Windows Live Spaces blog today only to find out that everything has changed! Apparently, Windows Live Spaces has switched everything over to another blogging platform called WordPress, which is completely different and will take me awhile to get used to. So, the site may look a little funky until I get everything figured out. We’ll see whether or not I think it’s a change for the better!
Time for a Sabbatical
After working in China for six years straight, both my company and my family say it’s time for a sabbatical! This will be a year-long period of time where I can rest, reconnect with friends and family, work a part-time job, and work on anything that may be helpful for me when I return to China in a year. As of right now, there are a lot of details yet to be worked out, but I’m taking it slowly, one day at a time. The main thing right now is to get settled and over jet-lag. So far, things are going well! In the few days I’ve been here I’ve been shopping for some new clothes and got a cell phone (my China cell won’t work here). I’ve also had some good times with family, and am looking forward to many more! Here are some shots of me with my nephews:
With Mathew, the youngest. My sister is in a hospital bed because she broke her leg at the ankle about 6 wks ago.
Mathew again.
With Andrew, the oldest. He’s growing up!
Kai Rui's Place 
