dream out loud

It’s a little surreal to have been in China for these past few months, then immediately upon returning, I see lots of media coverage about some ethnic unrest and violence over there. The area in reference is Xinjiang province, where I spent my most recent holiday. I loved meeting the Uighurs, Kazakhs, local Han. Everyone was kind to us, eager to show us their beloved home (except for a few who were only out to rip us off, but that can be said, anywhere, right?) I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over these past few months about how these groups can live along side one another, without actually co-existing. It’s another topic I’ve been meaning to spend more time thinking and writing about. I will likely never fully understand the ins and outs and history of this ethnic tension, but I’d definitely like to try.

But today, as I log into my blogspot account without a VPN, I am reminded by what it’s like to be in China among the of unrest. My friend Ryan (in Suzhou at the moment) writes about the good old Firewall being at work again.

I never claimed to know the solution for political unrest in China, but wouldn’t you think that citizens, especially young people, should be aware of their current events and surroundings? They say we learn from history, so maybe people should know about all the good and all the bad, and make their own decisions? Just a thought.

Two days from now will mark the twentieth anniversary of a particular unnamed event in China. I’m a little bit away right now, but I was actually there during the tenth anniversary. For that entire week, the whole area was blockaded off. Things in the city were just a little bit more quiet (with a feel of caution) than usual.

I don’t know how things are there this week, but I will certainly ask my cohorts. From where I am though, there’s a big impact, and at the same time, very little. Why very big? Many of us have affectionately coined the term, The Great Firewall of China. And that very firewall is at work again. YouTube has been blocked on and off for a few months now. Blogger just got blocked not long ago. And tonight I noticed that Twitter and Flickr have also joined the ranks. Oddly enough, I have never able to access WordPress blogs, however, I can get to the WordPress main page. So far, email, (Gmail and Yahoo Mail, at least) Facebook, iTunes and Skype are still working. My friend emailed me some photos from her recent vacation hosted by Picasa (also owned by Gmail) and I can access those as well. I wonder if those are to follow. I use a VoIP telephone in order to maintain a 212 number and I’m wondering if later this week, I’ll have troubles with that.
(All of these firewalled sites can be accessed if you have a VPN. But that’s not the point.)

And why do I say there is very little impact? Well, I was curious about what the media and people actually think, beyond the government trying to suppress any opinions or views being expressed on blogs, videos or photos. I started on the CCTV web site, and could not find one mention of the anniversary. Even a search for the name of it did not bring up anything new. Then, I started to surf channels on TV. I have had the TV on for a few hours now (procrastinating and doing research…) and have gone back forth on CCTV – both Chinese and English language, Asia versions of BBC and CNN. Not one mention.

Why isn’t there any media coverage? Fear? Apathy? Or are people trying to forget?

I plan to keep checking tomorrow and the day after. I will also walk by the newsstand to see if any magazines or newspapers make mention. Note: none did, as of today.

So, if you don’t hear much from me, know that I’m okay. And enjoy the silence.

Last week, I found out that all visits to the orphanage at which I volunteer at have been “suspended until further notice” by the Suzhou government, due to H1N1 panic. For the past six months, I have visited the infant room at the orphanage once a month. I don’t do much, but the little that I do seems to bear some significance. What I do is hold babies who don’t receive much affection, and from time to time I go play with and feed some toddlers. The first time I visited I went home and just felt miserable. In fact, I have a draft in my blog account about that day because I was simply unable to finish writing about it. That visit was tough for me because I saw babies and toddlers with Down’s Syndrome, birth defects and diseases, who had been abandoned, likely for those reasons. They were all beautiful to me, and I couldn’t fathom the thought of parents that gave them up. When I hold the babies, they stop crying, some smile and many grab on to me. It sometimes hurts to put them back down and go back to my very fortunate life. I realized that I do very little but the babies get a great deal out of it. On one visit, I was able to translate some things for the women who work at the orphanage, so I felt a bit more helpful then.    

It seems that everyone in the world has gotten into a bit of a tizzy over the H1N1 strain of the flu (the disease formerly known as swine flu) I don’t mean to discount the fact that there have been deaths involved here, but there is definitely a bit of over-reacting here. At my school, for one week, everyone was subjected to mandatory temperature checks upon entering the building. A few people who had been the United States over our May holiday were asked to stay home for a full week before returning to work. Well, I can be a bit more understanding about the babies, since things like this usually affect the old and the young.

I am little saddened that I can’t see the babies until “further notice.” It’s strange because I have limited contact with those children, infrequent at that, but I feel close to them. I feel happy when I get to see them again and will miss them. I probably won’t see them again until I return to Suzhou after the summer, and they might be in the toddler room by then. I hope they will be happy and healthy until then.

I was riding the bus home today, looking out the window. All of a sudden, it hit me that I live in China. I know that sounds weird, as I’ve been here for about six weeks. But you have to realize, I sort of live in a bubble. Sometimes I call it China Lite or Pleasantville, Asia. This area is a bit of a bubble. It’s an industrial park built next door to a lovely garden/canal village. It’s been infused with an expat population and foreign companies. A lot of people complain about having a tough time finding ingredients, certain products or foods but there is a surprising amount of import goods available. Not to mention a lot of western restaurants and fast food places. So all this is to say that in the beginning I often forgot that I was in China. Only when I leave the bubble do I sometimes realize I am far from home.

I am going to stop apologizing for not having time to post. It has well been established that I am busy these days. I suppose that is par for the course – moving to a new country, starting at a new school.

Re-cap of the week since my last posting. We had a national holiday last week in China and got the week off from work. I spent a few days at home and then flew down to Malaysia with AJ. I started in Kuala Lumpur, where I found JK (a guy I met at the Cambridge job fair) He is working at the International School of Kuala Lumpur as an elementary music teacher. He showed us around the first day and at night went out with some of his Malaysian friends to the home of one of their friends. See, it was Hari Raya the day we arrived, the first day after a month of fasting. So we had a huge dinner at this friends’ home. I don’t know how I ended up experiencing this. It was pretty amazing. The next day, JK flew to Malaysia for his own little trip but his friend drove AJ and me to Melaka. We had already planned to go but she thought it would be fun to join us. On the way there, we stopped at a beach at Port Dickson. Then continued to drive along to Melaka. We spent the day walking along Jonker Street looking in the different stalls. In the evening, our friend GR showed up to meet us at our hostel. He had spent the previous few days in Taman Negara. So here he was, leech bites and all. Unfortunately the hostel was full and had no more beds left. I won’t post here where he slept.

The next morning, we walked around seeing the many, many museums of Melaka. Mid-day, we left for Kuala Lumpur. Then we got to KL, settled into JK’s friend’s apartment (she so graciously let us stay there while she was away) and took a nice shower. We went out for an awesome Lebanese dinner, finished off with a strawberry shisha.

The next morning, we just went out for a quick bite and then were off to the bus station to get to the airport. Many confusions and long lines later, we were on the flight back to China. (I’m getting more tired at the moment so this is getting less detailed) We got to Hangzhou, then made our way to the hostel. Very nice one… We woke up the next day, completely sore because of the good old hard as a board Chinese mattresses. We checked out and went looking for food. We found a really yummy and very inexpensive dumpling place. Then we were on our way to the bus station, to get home to Suzhou. Two hours later, we were back and on the Suzhou public bus. When I got to my apartment complex gates, I felt this relief of being home. Usually at the end of a trip, I am ready to get home – but this time, I didn’t think about home as NY, but of my home in Suzhou. Photos of the trip will be up on Flickr soon.

More happiness from the week:

- I got mail! Thanks, KK!
- My shipment has arrived in China! I probably won’t have my stuff for a week or two while it is in customs but at the least it is near!

Okay, only exclamation mark worthy comments to be posted and I don’t have more good news like that.

So, more to come…