at home… in China

… recently, and it’s come to feel pretty normal. Even feels rather normal to run an errand by going to Beijing, some 1500 km, 16 hours, on a train. Once again, back to my main interest for this blog: how do you make yourself at home in a strange country. Or, for that matter, in your own, in this world of ours.

After all, only too often, we live as if we were just visiting. Life is short is the attitude, and so people wring as much fun out of it as possible, look for a place that truly feels home, then get bored and start looking for different places, more exciting things, the more perfect partner… I’m sick of it.
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Those Asians. Just a smile, a front put up, a mask. The true feelings are hidden, real opinions seldom expressed. Or so, the common idea about the Far East seems to go.

If it ever was right, it hides the complexity of the present. Or actually, it not only hides, it positively misleads: In daily life, (especially young) people show emotions just as much as anywhere else. Chinese also – although valuing calmness, too – are often highly expressive. Not only that, but there are some things which Chinese will very openly comment on (and which Western people would avoid mentioning so directly).

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A recent post by Adam Daniel Mezei, calling for a culling of “English-language Chinese blogs” has been making me think.

There quite certainly are too many, too personal, non-productive, blogs out there. And not just on China. And not just blogs. Witness (sorry, but the example is too good), online porn. Whether it’s Steve Jobs or the CCP, they will not stop it – there is just too much of an interest.

So, crowd intelligence all too often seems to move towards the least common denominator, the most base of interests. In China affairs, too, I dare say that a post on sex in China is more of a lure than one on perceptions of gender-appropriate behavior; something outrageous is more likely to garner attention than something thoughtful.

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Funny thing.

If you go by what you hear, even in the midst of the reports on China’s economic growth, it doesn’t sound like a place to be: pollution everywhere, except maybe in those places which are truly backwards, without too much in terms of medical care or other amenities; traffic that is even more lethal than the air and water – and those are not exactly safe; (more…)

I was just on a train to Beijing, taking some time off to run some errands.
Strange situation, being separated from my love, but in order to organize things so that we can be together.

Alone on the train, I was thinking, reminiscing:
When I was a bit younger, I watched Michael Palin’s journeys… “Around the World in 80 days“, “Full Circle” around the Pacific…
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