The Red Life

Asia » China
August 5th 2004

Published: March 7th 2008

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Yellow Head

Flour Boys

I think that I will always have mixed feelings about my days in China. I had lived there for a year as an international student at Nanjing University. I spent most of my days studying Chinese and my nights hanging out with a great homestay family that I lived with in the southern part of the city. Over the course of that year, I found love, made lifelong friends, and grew a great deal as a person. It was an amazing time for me. However, there were also times that the stark contrast of the way of life there contradicted from that of my own.

Even years after I have left China, I seem to struggle with the idea of returning. At times I construct grand plans of going back to work while brushing up on my rusty language skills. There are a plethora of cheap Chinese language schools to choose from and no matter what town I may end up in the need for a native English speaker is always there. It is so easy, yet so hard.

After you leave a place and let the course of time brush over your memories the good ones are usually

It's all in the Wrist

Teaching his daughter the ways of the brush one weekend morning.

the ones that tend to remain. I have highly romanticized visions of myself in my green people’s liberation army winter coat, riding my bicycle amongst hundreds of other Chinese on my way to school. I would always stop at my favorite food stall on the side of the road and chat with the owner while eating my way through a couple of steamed red beancurd buns and a boiled tea egg. I can still remember the route clearly and it brings back feelings of nostalgia thinking about it.

The other people that end up traveling to these places and partaking in the same program are also much more likely to share common interests with you than say the girl or guy you may choose to sit next to in the pub back home. The common interests you share with these people and the alien culture that you all now find yourselves in acts as a bond to make good friendships. I still stay in touch with many of the people from that program even years after it has come to a close and I can be quite confident in saying that this will always be the case.

There

Yang Shuo

Tending the fields

is no doubt that China is a fascinating country. There is so much history and the great expanse of the land is dotted with thousands of interesting places. It is a country like that of America that you could never quite truly exhaust. The area is just too great. With the Olympics this coming summer it is China’s time to shine. Although many people bitch and moan about the decision I believe they deserve and need it. Maybe I will find myself back there in the next couple of years… maybe.

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