2013, Already?!

I've been back to California twice in the last half-year (once, for a whirlwind 18-hr trip to celebrate the wedding of two wonderful friends). Both times, I encountered friends, family, and acquaintances that I was surprised to find out that they were surprised that I was living in China. Oops. 

I chalk it up to a combination of a busy schedule, ties of friendship slowly unwinding, overfilled memories, and mostly, me forgetting to mention it. I guess I depended too much on my change in location on facebook in this facebook-obsessed world. 

I also got a fair share of, "you're still in China?!" This was usually said with a mix of disbelief (for family that spent most of their lives trying to emigrate from China), impressiveness (for those that have read about Beijing's "fog"), and befuddlement (for those who think China is still in 1975).

So I took it as a sign that it's time to revive my blog, yeah! 2013 has really pushed me to take a pause, a breath and reflect and share. I always saw new experiences (whether it be through food, travel, people, conversation, or books) as the thing that keep me going--my oxygen, if you will. Which in Beijing, is an apt metaphor. Because there's not much to have around these parts (see below). But oxygen is only useful if you take the moment to breathe it in. 

北京欢迎你！

Sichuan

During the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, one of the hardest hit areas was Beichuan. Since 2008, Beichuan has become an earthquake memorial park. Residents have been moved into newly renovated apartments in Xin Beichuan ("New Beichuan"). Xin Beichuan is a multi-province effort with a neat map labeling which part was sponsored by which province:

Nice, Soft Power

This semester, my curriculum is focused on American history, particularly the more contemporary issues that the different regions of the US face. Covering the Central Plains/Midwest this week, I warned my students that this region (in comparison to our exploration of the South, filled with a rich music, political, and food history; or New York, another center of rich music and cultural history; or Chicago, front row of the underground rise of the mob in the face of Prohibition) was not the most exciting. However, it is the center of one of the greatest cover-ups in American culture and is setting a dangerous trend for other rapidly industrializing countries.

I ended up showing Food, Inc, a really great documentary on how twisted our food industry is.

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The factory farms that have hopped up our chickens to grow rapidly and to enormous sizes. Beef, fattened up on corn and huddled into massive lots and systematically slaughtered. Corn, corn, corn, subsidized to below its cost of production and streaming into every area of food. Down to how most of these huge corporate factories rely on cheap labor (basically undocumented immigrants) and reward them, of course, with low wages, no health care, and exposure to disease and bacteria as they hack away at beef. These same immigrants are busted by ICE while the companies taking advantage of them are protected by the law.


While this is an epidemic in the States, I thought it was particularly relevant for my students because I see China heading in that direction. Most prominent example would be milk. Sanyuan milk already had its scandal in 2008 with melanin found in its infant powder. The rapid industrialization of China as it continues to develop first, second, and third tier cities will only push people from the countryside into the cities. The growing presence of fast food will place pressure for cheaper meat but more importantly, feed into this culture of not understanding where exactly your food is coming from. As an American, to see that fast food (and all the twisted implications of it) is where we're leaving the greatest legacy in a growing China is food for thought.

They put the WHOA in WOmen I: Pastor G.

My time in Sichuan was guided by several inspirational women. First, I went to Mianzhu, near Deyang. Mianzhu is close to the areas hit hardest by the earthquake (Hanwang and a ways away, Beichuan). While volunteers, non-profits, and aid agencies flocked to the earthquake site in 2008, I have seen how churches have remained the committed, long-term support systems for these destroyed (and rebuilt/transformed) communities.

Pastor G. is really awesome.

Here she is, eating dumplings

She used to work on the radio, doing news broadcasts. But felt called to be a Pastor after her church community kept asking her to do it. An incredibly humble woman, she commutes each week between a bigger city that her daughter and husband live (so that she can go to school) to the church. She roughs it out in the church during week to cut costs. If you've ever been in a Sichuan winter, it is COLD. While Sichuan is further south than Beijing and is technically warmer, there is no centralized heating. And it can get mad humid so the cold just, as many Sichuanese told me, "sits in your bones." So basically, inside and outside are equally cold/warm. But in just talking to her, I can see she receives so much joy in her work. Anyone that stops by the church, she genuinely engages. She goes out of her way to pick up and drop off people since the church can be a long distance for folks in more rural areas. And the best part of it is how unassuming she is. With curled hair and glittered-boots, Pastor G. has a very innocent charm about her but through the earthquake, she's seen some crazy, hard times. And before, during, and after the quake, she's still here. She's still invested, she's committed. She's part of the community.

Pastor G. also showed me a lot of the state of community leadership in China. Especially in the rural areas of China (like Sichuan), male leadership is lacking. So women, in all their glitter boots glory, step up and make it happen. Back in the US, there is the ongoing Church debate whether or not women should be in church leadership. Women might become too aggressive then, as the argument goes. But here, I see a balance of strength and grace. There's a maternal aspect to how Pastor G. nurtures and cares for her community. She's no softie though--she shows her pastoral chops in her resilience and strength in how she mobilized the rebuilding of her church and weathering all the stuff that has been thrown her way since.

January 2: The Sichuan Situation

After the fall semester concluded, I traveled to Sichuan. After the 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan, my (very Chinese and very cool) parents came here to aid local churches and organizations, on behalf of Chinese Christian Herald Crusade. In 2009, I joined them for their second follow-up trip, going to Mianzhu, Deyang, and Beichuan. This year, with the long winter holiday, I decided to go back for two reasons. One, out of curiosity, to see what 2 years has led to in the area (add it onto the year and a half that was between my initial trip and the actual earthquake). Two, to visit and help out the churches and orphanage that CCHC helps support.

For any post-natural disaster zone, I believe two major things happen:

1. People forget.
2. People move on.

People, meaning both the people affected and the people spectating. It's part of human nature and how we cope.  I'll be honest, I have a tendency to walk with a do-gooder chip on the shoulder, chiding people for forgetting about the (insert sad child/starving panda). The first time I went to Sichuan in 2009, my general conclusion was horror (with other people and with myself) over how quickly people can forget about disasters and the people affect. We spent most of our time there simply spending time with people, hearing stories about the earthquake, the lives lost/destroyed, and the subsequent chaos in the cracks between government controversy and human pain.

And I forgot.
And I moved on.

2012 brought me back there and I saw how people here did the same. And what I mean by moving on is that I saw the amazing opportunities that sprung forth from this massive disaster and again and again, the amazing human capacity to adapt, change, grow, and ultimately, move on.

I came back to remember what I learned, what I saw.
And I came back to move on.

2009 (one and half years after the quake)

2012 (almost 4 years after the quake)

2012, hey there!

*This January 1 entry may look like it's already March 8--Happy International Women's Day! hey ooo--but your eyes are just tricking you.)

2012 and I hit it off in a...taxi cab. For the big stroke of midnight on January 1, 2012, I was in a taxi cab, trying to get back to the university so that we could light up some red lanterns to celebrate the new year. Original plan was to light them off the roof. This plan was probably unsafe on many levels.

1. Roof: illegal to be on
2. Lighting red lanterns: probably illegal but whatever. Bigger issue: fire hazard, especially with power lines and trees in the way.
3. Combo: Doing something illegal and unsafe in an illegal area, probably not the best way to start the new year.

But we settled for just doing it on the streets. In hindsight, it was probably even more unsafe, seeing how most of  the lanterns took about 25 meters to gather enough lift to actually float up rather than straight into the engines of unsuspecting (and nonexcited) people driving their car around on midnight of New Year's.

Beautiful, heading straight into the telephone wires.

Caught red-(lantern) handed.

Of course, celebrated these close calls, destroying the environment, and the new year with some dancing:

Dancing.

In Review: 2011

2011 has been filled with good memories. Many unexpected, good things. To catch-up, the fall has been filled with some nice adventures.

Mongolia trekking:

Trains, where learned about Mongolian card games, awkwardly made friends, and had some really great sleeps.

Mongolian ladies stylin'

In the Mongolia-Russian border town, this is the market corner where we waited for a bus...

Your standard, "I lived in a Mongolian ger!" picture

Muron, Mongolia

Khoisgvol Lake, gorgeous night sky follows

Led by Baya, our fearless leader

Get off at a random train stop in the Gobi at 2 AM? Join a Mongolian pilgrimage  at 5 AM.

The camels are coming!

A 60 year old camel herder, my hero.

Jackson Hole:

I finally got connected with my American roots and went to Jackson Hole to get my inner cowgirl on. Howdy! Or more like, 你 号dy 马

I joined a friend on a research assignment to Jackson Hole...in Hebei, China. For more insight, check her article out!

Jiangxi, Round II

I went back to Jiangxi province for another trip. But this time, went with friends and headed to Lushan Mountain instead. Given the chilly weather (ice and snow everywhere), the mountain was beautiful and empty--rare combination in China.

Locks for lovers, as on every Chinese mountain

First time seeing ice on trees! First snowfall in Beijing right before we left.

Keep tea leaves warm in the winter

Final 2011 week of final exams, grades, and celebrations--2012, see you very soon!