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LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — I need to acknowledge some milestones now. First, this month marks the fifth year I’ve kept this blog going, and today is my 55th (double-nickel!) birthday.
[In Chinese shorthand, the number 5 (wu) can stand for "I" or "me" (wo), so this post is really just all about me. Me me me.]
As I’ve said before, I started this exercise in self-expression (and self-promotion) as a lark, then I discovered I actually liked doing it. I can write about anything I bloody well please, so that’s really cool. And it seems people actually read it, which is even cooler.
Thanks to the wonders of social networking, I’ve been inundated with birthday wishes from literally all around the world (the US, China, Israel, and Pakistan, to name a few — and Australia – thanks, mate!). Quite a few of those wishes have come from students I taught ages ago, who still remember me fondly enough to shoot me quick Facebook comments. I am a very happy and fortunate man. Thanks, everyone!
On one birthday 25 years, I watched while the Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff, killing its crew. Today, I am watching CNN cover the civil unrest in Egypt, which while tense seems to be far less fatal than one might expect. Historic events happen all the time, naturally, but today’s events (and the great time I am spending with my kids on my holiday here) will help me remember this day for a long, long time.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — Today marks the first anniversary of my arriving here, exhausted and bleary-eyed after a long trek from Hong Kong to the Chinese interior. I’ve been reflecting on the past year for several days now.
Before I get started on those reflections, I want to say that I don’t regret coming here at all. In many ways, my leap across the ocean is the best thing to have happened to me in several years. I am happier, more relaxed, less hefty, and more sure of myself than I was before. As I have said before, I am one lucky fellow.
Many Chinese who meet me for the first time are surprised that a man my age would decide to leave his children behind and live far from his hometown. They fear I am lonely and unhappy. It’s a cultural misapprehension, though, stemming from the difference in our cultures.
In China, people can retire at 50. They also tend to stay in one place, usually their hometown, for most of their lives. Children are expected either to live with their parents, or at least be a stone’s throw away from them. So, for Chinese unfamiliar with American customs, I should be living somewhere on Long Island with one of my kids, taking care (as many Chinese grandparents do) of the grandchildren, playing majiang or chess, and watching TV.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — I am writing this brief post in between reading student diaries and essays. The local time is 3:00 pm. One year ago, at 2:28 pm, a massive earthquake hit Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, which adjoins western Hunan.
The magnitude 8 quake killed more than 69,000 people, including more than 5,300 schoolchildren, injured more than 370,000, and left at least 4.8 million homeless. There are still thousands of residents unaccounted for.
My students here in Hunan tell me they could feel the earthquake in their own middle schools and at Jishou University. Buildings swayed in Beijing and Shanghai hundreds of miles from the epicenter in central Sichuan. No one knew the extent of the disaster until a few hours later, as the nation heard reports of derailed trains, ruined highways, non-existent cell phone coverage, and piles of rubble where buildings and schools once stood.
A year later, the region is still far from recovered. While China has done an admirable job in responding to the disaster, better in many ways than the US responded to the less deadly Louisiana hurricanes, there is some discontent. There are recriminations that schools were shoddily constructed, inviting catastrophic collapses in an earthquake. The government has squelched public protests about poor school construction. Rumors say some provincial officials have absconded with millions of dollars in national and international reconstruction donations. Meanwhile, residents complain they are still homeless, still have no work, still cannot find enough to eat.
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