One of the reasons why I haven't blogged in a few days

Last Friday morning, I received the following e-mail from Roger Lin, the person I was told to contact in regards to getting part-time work with the Shenzhen Daily. I sent the man a cover letter and my resume on the previous Sunday morning.

Dear Mr. Jenkins,

Thanks for your e-mail. I'm very sorry for the late reply.

I'm very glad to know you are willing to contribute to our paper on various topics. As you want to do part-time, the best way for you is to write features or commentaries. You write on culture, tourism, food and drink, and commentaries on news events or other topics that may be interest to expatriates in Shenzhen. Of course, there may be many other topics you are interested in.

So let me know when you plan to write something. I'll forward you stories to the relevant page.

Thank you again. Looking forward to read your stories.

Best regards,

Roger Lin


I thought about this for about a day, discussing story ideas with Jessica West over the phone and via e-mail. Then, last Saturday night, I wrote the following e-mail and attached the accompanying story.

Dear Mr. Lin,

Attached is a story I have written for consideration. I hope it is well received. I think many expatriots who do not know much Mandarin can relate. Also, I have a few other ideas that I would like to propose. If you could tell me what you think, I would appreciate it.

1) A story on Thanksgiving. What do Chinese citizens think/know about Thanksgiving and juxtapose that with how some expatriots see the holiday.The Chinese who know what the holiday is will probably the basic definition. But, does this differ from how expats think of the day? Has Thanksgiving gone from a holiday about sharing food with loved ones (ie the first Thanksgiving was a sharing of the harvest between Native Americans and Pilgrims) and being thankful for everything that you and turned into a day of gluttony and football?

2) The presidential election is still on everyone's minds, and from the conversations I have had with people in and around my neighborhood, it's still on their lips. Most people seem to dislike George Bush. And most people seem to believe Barack Obama will bring much needed change. Why? I would love to interview Chinese and ask their opinions about this, and I think many expatriots would be interested in reading about their opinions.

3) One of the biggest culture shocks for me when I moved here was seeing the small children with holes in the backs of their pants. In the west, small children are not allowed to go to the bathroom so freely as they are here in China. I saw a woman holding a small child's legs as it urinated into the street a week ago. This would never happen in America. I would love to write a story exploring this cultural difference, complete with opinions from Chinese and expatriots alike.

I hope you enjoy the attached story, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Gavin Jenkins


. …. And here is the story I attached:


I would not be able to survive in China without the word ‘zhege,’ which is Mandarin for ‘this.’
When I moved to Shenzhen in August to teach English, I knew how to say hello - that’s it.
I’m enrolled in a Mandarin class, but the education process as been slow, a crawl’s pace actually. Thus, I rely on ‘this.’
The day I moved into my apartment in Bao’ an, I went to a department store to buy a bedspread, a bed sheet, and pillowcases.
In America, buying these items constitutes an errand. In China, without a solid grasp of the language, finding and purchasing these crucial bedroom materials is a recipe for stress and frustration.
The mall is a mile from my apartment, and the weather when I moved here can only be described as sweltering. So, picture a pale-skinned American, drenched in sweat, looking aimlessly for the linen department.
The linens were in the back right corner of the store. This may seem like an easy step, but when you can’t read the signs that are hanging from the ceiling, finding what you want to buy is half the battle.
The bed sheets, bedspreads and pillowcases all seemed to be in the same area. I perused the racks, hoping to find something with English written on it, or a least a picture that showed what was inside the package.
I was unlucky on both fronts.
By this time, I had gotten the attention of two female employees. I guess it’s not every day that a flushed, sweat-soaked American enters their store.
Standing on either side of me, the young ladies picked packages off the racks, pointed at them and spoke in Mandarin. I still did not know how to say “I don’t understand” in their language. All I could do was shrug and laugh.
“I have absolutely no idea what you two are saying,” I said.
They looked at each other and giggled, their hands covering their mouths. I looked away in frustration and shook my head, trying to figure out what to do. That’s when I saw the display bed.
Waving the young ladies to follow me, I rushed over to the bed, peeled back the blanket and lifted up the bed sheet.
“Zhege,” I said.
I also had yet to memorize “I want” or “I would like to buy.” This crude form of communicating was all that I had at my disposal. I slipped the bedspread off the corner of the mattress and held it up.
“Zhege,” I said.
The girls were nodding their heads and giggling so loudly that two more female employees walked over to observe. I grabbed a pillow and tugged on the end of its casing.
“Zhege,” I said.
One of the four employees ran back over to the sales rack and grabbed three packages. When she returned, she lifted up the bedspread and held out one item.
“Zhege,” she said.
She went through this routine for the pillowcase and the bed sheet, as well. Her fellow employees thought it was hilarious, and as they laughed at me, I couldn’t help but wonder how American department store employees would treat a Chinese shopper who could not speak English and did exactly what I had done.
I pictured a Chinese man standing next to a display bed at a department store in Pittsburgh, holding up a bed sheet and saying, “This, this, this.”
Americans would probably make fun of a foreigner who could only communicate in this manner, and, most likely, the four women in front of me were doing the same.
All I could do was laugh with them.
That was three months ago, and whether I’m ordering dinner at a restaurant or buying a pack of cigarettes from a corner store, the word ‘zhege’ continues to be my most resourceful survival tool here in China.


This was Mr. Lin’s response, which I received late Wednesday night:

Dear Mr. Jenkins,

Thanks for your quick story ideas.

I talked with the Culture editor and she would appreciate it if you could write the Thanksgiving story, which could be published next Tuesday or Thursday. The length would be between 2,000-2,500 characters (letters), as we are a tabloid-size newspaper with limited space.

Your first story on "Zhege" is interesting, but this is something foreigners encounter a lot in Shenzhen and other parts of China. We only have 16 pages a day, so this kind of stories cannot be published unless the newspaper add more pages. There is no suitable column for the hole-in-pants story right now.

Yes, the U.S. president-elect remains a hot topic these days. A commentary or analysis, also about 2,000 characters long, would be good. But I'm not sure whether Chinese interviewees would give interesting opinions.

Best regards,

Roger Lin

. … It’s Friday afternoon. I skipped out on going to Chinese class to watch the Steelers-Bengals game and to blog. After being frustrated with the video quality of the game - it took an hour and a half to get through the first quarter - I gave up, checked the final score on the Post-Gazette’s website, and hopped in the shower. I’m eating dinner at Jack’s tonight, and his son, who is in college, is going to help me go out and interview Chinese people for the story. I have no idea why I’m interviewing Chinese people for a story on Thanksgiving. But, I feel that hearing their thoughts through an interpreter will be interesting all the same, and, hopefully, will give me a better understanding about the perception of the holiday. I also need to interview expats. I was going to wait until Sunday to do this - that’s when the program is celebrating Thanksgiving, which reminds me, I must go buy paper plates to pitch in my part - but Mr. Lin said the editors at the paper want it by Monday, which means I should get it to them on Sunday. So, I sent out the following e-mail. I have gotten a few responses - all from girls - and I haven’t sifted through them yet. Here is the e-mail I sent out last night:

What’s up people,

I got Thanksgiving on the brain. There's the lesson I've been doing all week, and then there's the Shenzhen Daily. I've been assigned to write a story for the paper about the holiday. The story idea I proposed to the paper was this: interview Chinese people and see what they know and think of the holiday and juxtapose that with what expats think about Thanksgiving. This was all I proposed and, somehow, an editor bought it. I've been thinking about what the story would be about, and I think I might change it to how expats celebrate Thanksgiving away from home, how they make it work. Not real sure at this point. Regardless of what I do, I was planning on interviewing some of you for the story. I was going to wait till Sunday to pull some people aside, but the good folk at the Shenzhen Daily would like the story on Monday. Thus, I would like to get it done ASAP..


I came up with this idea. I'm going to list a series of questions below. If you want, answer them and reply to me. I'm not going to quote everyone in the article, but the more people who reply, the better understanding I will have of what the story should be about. It might be cool if the people who answer reply to all and share their answers with everyone. And if you want to share with everyone but don't want to be in the article just say so.


Here we go. If some of these questions suck, keep in mind that in my former life I was a sports writer, not the Thanksgiving beat writer.


1) For those of you out there who have spent Thanksgiving away from home before (either in another state from your family as I have done twice, or, and more relevant to this, as an expat), what are the keys to making it work? What's the secret to having a memorable Turkey Day without missing home so much that you become sick to your stomach?


2) What are the first things that pop into your head when you think about Thanksgiving?


3) What do you like about Thanksgiving?


4) What, if anything, do you dislike about Thanksgiving?


5) Where would you rank it among American holidays?


6) What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions (this could be something universal, like watching football, or something your family does that's special)?


7) What's your favorite Thanksgiving memory (or memories - I'm all for people being as long winded as possible on this one)?


8) With so many of us concentrating on pigging out and watching football (thinking about myself here), do you think Americans have lost touch with the true meaning of Thanksgiving? If so, why?


9) Where does religion come into play on Thanksgiving? You're giving thanks to someone or something, right?


10) Which obviously leads me to ask: What are your favorite foods to eat on Thanksgiving? Anything out of the ordinary?


11) What was your worst Thanksgiving (optional. ... Though, I will share that my dad used to make my brothers and I rake leaves every Thanksgiving, and one year he had the nerve to not help and, after a couple hours of us working alone, we confronted him and a massive argument ensued. Things were said. It was not pretty)?


12) How many Thanksgiving dinners do you eat? Do you have dinner at your house with your immediate family, and then go to your aunt's or uncle's or grandparents’? What about friends' houses?


13) Where do friends come into play on Thanksgiving? I thought this was a universal tradition, but after talking with three female Bao' an residents, it might just be a western Pa thing. The night before Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh is in some regards a bigger drinking night than New Year's Eve. Every one is home for Thanksgiving, and everyone goes to the local bar for a mini high school reunion. Am I alone on this?


14) Speaking of which, guys, how many of you still play in Turkey Day Bowl games with your boys back home? On the other hand, how many of you play Turkey Day Bowl games with your family? Ladies, if any of you play football on Thanksgiving, I'm sorry and please share. .. And why do you think football is so important to Thanksgiving?


OK, that's all I can think of right now. Before I end this massive e-mail, I will share my favorite Thanksgiving memory with all of you. It was last year. My grandma Rita was dying. She passed in December (my last grandparent to depart us). She wasn't eating much, and she did not want to get out of bed for Thanksgiving. She told the family to enjoy the holiday without her. Her excuse was that she did not want to get all dressed up. She had been wearing nothing but pajamas for months, and if you knew Rita McQuaide, you knew that she made sure she looked good when she saw her grandchildren and great grandchildren. My cousin's wife Angie, who was one of those people who became an instant member of the family long before she was engaged to my cousin, talked my grandmother into it by saying, "Then wear your pajamas to Thanksgiving. We're all gonna wear our pajamas. We'll have a pajama Thanksgiving dinner." And so we did - about 15 of us ate dinner that night at my aunt Kim's house, each person wearing pajamas. It was grandma Rita's last Thanksgiving, the last time she really got to see all of us together.


Sorry if this was long. I have a problem with being long winded sometimes. ... OK, all the time. Thanks for the help.


Gavin

PS - If you want me to possibly use you, please put your full name, age, the part of Shenzhen where you're living, and your hometown and state in your response. Editors love those sorts of facts. Thanks.

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