8/8/08 has Arrived!

The Olympics are here!! WOOOOHHHOOO!!! Most people in the world are pretty fired up about the Olympics starting up, but if you are a member of the Chinese Government, Media, or just a damn good patriot this is the day you have been dreaming about and talking about for over a year. And it's here! Ahhhh, take a deep breath and soak it in... Personally I have seen and taken part in so much propaganda about the Olympics over the past year that everytime I see the five rings, or hear someone say a heavily accented "One world, one dream!" I throw up a little in my mouth. But today is an exciting day for me as well as it is the inaugural entry in my blog about living in China, and I can only hope that this blog can last longer than the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Great Wall

I've been living in China a little over 3 years now, and the experiences have been interesting. Interesting enough, I believe, to merit sharing. Living in China has been a remarkably rewarding experience on many fronts, though not always easy. The range of emotions is great, going anywhere from the slightly humiliating, to the incredibly hilarious, from the hugely dissapointing, to the uplifting and inspiring. So many things that we don't often get to experience when living in our native place, things we often wouldn't even think about.

I live in a small city in the East of China called Zaozhuang. This city is one of the poorer cities of an extremely overpopulated province called Shandong Province. Zaozhuang is situated right in between Beijing and Shanghai for those hoping for a clearer image of where it is. Zaozhuang is a city of about 800,000 people or so( which is pretty small by Chinese standards) and I am one of about 10 foreigners that I know about that live in this city, and one of only 4 white people that I know of who reside here. When you add to that the particular historical elements that have led to mainland China being largely closed off to the western world until about 30 years ago, and the general ignorance levels that both of those factors combine produce, it is easy to see where much of the material for this blog will be derived.

In this first post I feel it necessary to add a bit of a disclaimer though I do hope that as the blog develops that I will be able to communicate myself fluently enough that this will become unnecessary. This blog is simply explaining events that happen to me on a daily basis. Some of the material contained within will seem to be complaints about life in China, or the way that I am treated here. This should not be mistakenly taken to say that these problems are exclusive to this place or that China is a bad place to live. Problems of discrimination or miscommunication are common affairs in every country in the world, one just has to change the ethnic or minority group that accepts the brunt of it, and China is a lovely country of which I am truly fond of. My experience here has been an interesting one in that it has allowed me, as a white protestant American male, to see many forms of easily dismissed prejudice quite clearly, and has helped me to have an important perspective shift in my life.

It's also important to remember that most of the interesting situations that I am put into here are benign and somewhat humorous, though sometimes frustrating. Unlike many of the victims of prejudice or majority rule, being a White American living abroad can be quite easy. Most of the problems that I experience either come from people wanting to make and/or use a foreign acquaintance, for their own knowledge or business purposes. While annoying not out and out harmful. Some problems come from an acquired disdain certain people have for caucasian people due to a history of imperial powers from Europe and America coming to foreign lands and abusing and disrespecting the people there. This, while extremely hard to deal with, is at least somewhat understandable. So by no means is my situation even comparable to that of a majority of people on the planet who truly suffer discrimination. I do however believe that some of my experiences here can help to illuminate some of the subtle problems that discrimination and ignorance produce in all of our lives, problems that should be avoidable with a little bit of sensitive living.



There's the disclaimer and some serious preliminary stuff out of the way. The vast majority of my time here is remarkably enjoyable as shown by this...
Believe it or not we had a few drinks before this picture to loosen up. I hope that people can read and enjoy this no matter what is taken away from it. And don't foregt to tune into the Olympics 8、8、08 at 8. And drink Coke, Yao Ming loves it. and wear Nike too.