Amoy Wanderings

Living in a foreign country presents all sorts of challenges from a new language to cultural differences to new ways of doing things. It is very demanding and draining trying to constantly adapt to a society into which you don't really fit. Fortunately, as Americans we are very accepted here in China and face relatively little bias, but that doesn't mean life is easy. Last year, I spent a bit of time with a young man from the US named Alex. After he had been in China for about two months, I asked him what he missed most about the US. He didn't miss a beat. "The convenience. Everything is so much harder to do here. I didn't know how good I had it in the US." It was a great answer and the reason I really support Americans having a cross-cultural experience in a nation that isn't first world and in a place that isn't a resort. We faced a major challenge this year which we are still battling against: The Great Chinese Firewall. Thanks to the technology C

We had an amazing summer in the US, and were very sad when it came time to leave family and return to our home in China. It is always an emotional time, but we are joyful to be where we are supposed to be. When Emily and I returned to China, we knew that we had a challenge ahead of us. Over the summer, Emily had been accepted into Jimei University to study Chinese, and the school had sent the official paperwork to our address in China. Well, that created a problem. Because we didn't have the original paperwork, we would be unable to apply for a student visa for Emily and she would have to re-enter China on her tourist visa. When we arrived back in China, we weren't exactly sure what the process to make that change would be, but I anticipated that at minimum we would have to visit a US embassy within China and at most we would have to travel out of country to make that change. We got the visa! Administrative Building at Jimei University At the first opportunity

Over the past few decades, the West has promoted the idea that the only truly impartial worldview is secularism, the absence of religion In fact, secularism is now seen as the dominant and only viable perspective in the world, which--in typical Western myopia--ignores about 3.17 billion people in the East who are adherents to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and folk religions (according to Adherents.com ). We in the West have little understanding of the role religion plays in the daily lives and worldviews of nearly half of the world's population. Two weeks ago, I was able to witness an annual event in our apartment community which vividly demonstrated the divide. Our community is located on the outskirts of Xiamen in an area made up of country folk. The story we've been given is that this apartment complex was built on the ruins of a village and housing was given to many of the people to replace the homes they lost. So, the atmosphere of this complex is much more rural than most.

Cultural adjustments go through several stages, moving from novelty to annoyance, then acceptance, and finally adaptation. The first stage is when everything about the culture is new, intriguing, fresh, unusual, and (often) comical. Even though we had experienced much of Chinese culture in our time in Taiwan, much of last year was spent in that first stage. Things were new and fresh, and those things that would have been offensive in the States were still unusual and easily taken with a grain of salt, such as the habit laborers have of pulling their shirt up over their stomach when they are hot. That was last year. This year, as we have become more adapted to the culture, many of those cultural "quirks" have graduated to annoyances. The driving style is no longer amusing (many drivers drive with both feet, quickly swerve, or cut others off) especially for someone who still gets motion sickness; the stares in public are becoming more tiresome; the shifting of blame mor

The other day, I was walking along and noticed some loud music nearby, so I decided to investigate. What I found was quite interesting. It was an event for young children and their families promoting public service jobs like firefighters, rescue teams, bomb squads, and SWAT teams. For the most part, the event was what you would expect from these service sectors promoting themselves, but the difference was that it was expressly kid friendly, targeting children from 6-12 years. I don't have a lot to say about what happened, I just found it unusual and some of the technology fascinating; so, I will let the photos speak for themselves. Thanks for checking out the photos and feel free to leave a comment. Yes, this is a drone with about a 6 foot wingspan. The drones were impressive. I think this is a bomb removal robot. This father was anxious to get a gun into his son's hands, almost as anxious as the son was to hold it.