Blogs from Guangdong, China, Asia - page 4

Well, where to start? I returned to the U.S. in 2010 to find a lagging economy that just didn't have room for me. Fortunately for me, my parents did. It was an eventful couple of years. Loved ones were added (two friends gave birth to two baby girls) and others were taken away (my grandmother, a family friend, and two of our canine companions). There were surgeries, long recoveries, and an even longer bathroom renovation. And the story of how I finally got my Z visa could fill a book but I won't waste time with it here. It was with mixed feelings that I bid farewell to my family yet again and boarded a plane bound for China. My reintegration into Shenzhen hasn't gone as smoothly as I would have liked. I'm working in Nanshan, ... read more

12072012 Blog We were off for a four day visit to the hometown of our student/friend/colleague, Junfang. She was getting married, actually in was a celebration of her marriage which had taken place weeks ago in a government office, to another friend and colleague, Huanbiao. Chinese domestic flights always remind us of the cultural nuances (“At China Southern Airlines we cherish your decision to fly with us”), including the cabin crew bowing when they begin and end their safety presentation. Getting off the plane is another reminder, no sense that those in front should “deplane) (what does that mean anyway, rid oneself of the plane by going through a cleansing beam?) before those in the rear. This being one of the junctures where personal safety was not in jeopardy, I choose to exercise my foreigner prerogative ... read more

November 22 was Thanksgiving Day in the US but just an ordinary work day in China. Which raises an obvious question: what exactly does an ordinary work day involve? To answer this question, I made some notes regarding my activities on November 22. 7.05 AM: I leave my apartment and walk to the bus stop. The weather is overcast and humid. It’s been several weeks since we’ve seen blue sky in Zhuhai—and this isn’t even the rainy season. 7.45 AM: I arrive in my office and start my computer. I always visit three websites in the morning: yahoo.com, to check my email; intellicast.com, to check the weather forecast; and espn.com, to check the football news. (I used to check the New York Times’ website as well, but it’s been blocked by the authorities since late October, ... read more

It’s true. A new upscale wine shop opened on Tiyudong road named Karl Marx 1818. If you don’t see this as funny you should probably read more. At top Universities in China Marxist theory is still a mandatory course. It’s one of the hardest courses to teach because most Chinese students want to study business and finance. In a country with no social welfare run on fashion and greed, students find Marxist Theory primative and useless. Let’s think for a minute and try to find a use for Marx in China 2012. 2012 will be remembered as the year when Zhao Meimei bought a new Mercedes and posted it on her weibo, Bo Guagua, son of Bo Xilai just graduated from Harvard while his mother went to prison for murder, and the year a kid in ... read more

On the whole, the month of October was warm and sunny in Zhuhai. But on the weekend of October 28, a typhoon made landfall to our west, bringing cooler, rainy weather. Several mornings, it was noticeably cool (probably around 60 degrees) when I left my apartment. The Chinese people immediately broke out their jackets, and some felt the need for scarves as well. On Saturday, November 3, I took a break from grading midterm exams and took the bus downtown. My destination: Martyrs’ Park, which is located in the middle of a busy shopping district. The park is a memorial to—and a mausoleum for—communist party members who were killed in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, while fighting either the Japanese or the pre-1949 Chinese government. The memorial sits at the top of a hill, so, on ... read more