Progress?

I’m making progress on my trying-to-match-Chinese-life issues, and I think I’ve put forth a grand effort. I actually get online now (as you can tell): spending time on Facebook, Twitter, and even watching episodes of The Office and the Colbert Report on Hulu. Pretty good, huh?

But I feel so unproductive! Guilty, almost.

That is, except for the ability to listen to Chinese music all day on Baidu.com (the major search engine in China), to look up characters on my favorite online Chinese dictionary, and to read about what’s going on in China during the New Year and Spring Festival.

Moderation? Balance? My Chinese friend Li Li came to visit in January, and we talked a lot about balance. She is studying economics at the graduate level and is, understandably, seeking more balance in her life. As for me, I think I am balanced, and the rest of the world is out-of-whack.

For example, one of The Office episodes I watched is the one where Michael goes crazy on everyone about their New Year’s resolutions. And I totally agree with him. Buck up and get your crap done, everyone. It’s not hard. Stop reading this blog. Go clean your kitchen, and then read a book. Seriously, you do have the time. Because I did. Before I started watching The Office and refreshing my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Maybe this attitude I have comes from seeing how hard everyone in China works every day. In America, we have these ideas about what it means to work hard, earn money, achieve career goals. But the concepts are totally different in Asia. I realize that nothing is stopping me (or should be stopping me) from getting things done, so I try to do them.

I guess this goes back to that whole missing China idea. I had been trying to match that lifestyle, and then when I recently stopped, I simply made everything about China again in a different way. Just confirmation that I’m not crazy. Well, at least that I’m deciding to be crazy instead of it happening by accident. There’s a difference.

Chinese Lantern Festival

Bei’s family took me to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Fugu. This celebration is part of the Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year. For the past month or so, most people have had off work and school. At the Lantern Festival, everyone from the surrounding area comes to the city and has a celebration in the streets. There is a parade, people selling food and trinkets, a maze to walk through for good luck the rest of the year, and of course, lost of Chinese lanterns. There are many types of lanterns at the festival, but the most common ones look exactly the same as the ones you might find at a Chinese restaurant in America. I was expecting more elaborate or ones of higher quality, but they are the same thin fabric or paper.

In China, almost every single person in the area comes to festivals like this. In America, in contrast, not everyone goes to the 4th of July parade or county fair. In China, there is nearly 100% participation. The streets of Fugu were so crowded and noisy and dirty.



I may have been the only foreigner there. I might even be the only foreigner that has been in the area for some time. Everyone stared at me, and many pointed and laughed. Some even came up to me and touched my face. They laughed and said the Chinese word for American, and they laughed even harder when I said hello to them in Chinese. It is strange to be in the minority!