The Ethnocentricity of the Holidays

Around Chinese New Year I would often be asked by Chinese friends whether I’d go home for the holiday and what my family would do for it. At first I was a little taken aback by these questions. “Um,” I would reply, “Americans don’t celebrate Chinese New Year. If I went home all my family and friends would be working.” After I got used to these questions I simply replied, “Christmas is our Chinese New Year. It’s on December 25 of the solar calendar.”

Lately I’ve been getting similar types of questions from Americans about Chinese: “What do Chinese do for Christmas?”, “Do Chinese give presents for Christmas?” Which assume that Chinese actually observe Christmas in the first place. I now simply reply “Chinese New Year is their Christmas. It’s on February 7 this coming year.”

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Tags Holidays, America, China

Who’s the Holdup?

Friend: “I hear your wife is having a hard time getting out of China.”

Me: “No, she is having a hard time getting into America.”

Every time I discuss the holdup with Jinjin’s visa with Americans they assume that it is due to the Chinese government. When I tell them that the problem is with the American government they give me a queer look.

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Tags Immigration Visa, Chinese

What to Write About?

Since moving back to the States this blog has seen a general lack of activity. Part of this is because I was really busy readjusting, settling in, finding a job, getting settled in the job I found, working on homework for the couple courses I took during the semester, etc. But part of this is because living in the US there really isn’t a whole lot I find interesting to write about.

For instance, while living in China I wrote about seeing the dentist and getting a root canal without anesthetic. By contrast, I had a root canal here in the US last week and was thoroughly numbed, and then prescribed codeine for the pain. What is there to say about that? Compared to the Chinese we Americans are complete wussies?

I hope when Jinjin finally gets here I’ll have more to write about. (We’ve been waiting over ten months—five of which we’ve been separated during—for the US government to issue her a visa.)

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Tags Blogging, Writing

Rumors of Gmail Down in China

Yee: sucks, cant access to gmail….
feng37: Did someone blow up Google China? Where is Gmail?

Glad. I’m. In. America.

Tags China, Google, Gmail, GFW

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Teaball Brewing Tip

When brewing black loose leaf tea in a teaball in a cup, first shake the teaball over a sink until no more small bits of tea come out, then warm the cup with hot water, pour out the water, put your teaball in the cup, pour boiled water in the cup and cover with a saucer for a minute.

Shaking out the small bits of tea keeps the brew from becoming bitter, warming and covering the cup keeps the tea from brewing too weak.

Tags Tea, Teaballs

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