[First published June 21, 2014] Zibo City includes five districts. Zhangdian district, where I live, has all the modern conveniences. But for picturesque beauty, give me Boshan District. Boshan has more hills, or rather low mountains; it's greener, the air is cleaner and the temperatures are a little cooler. The streets are narrower, the traffic is even crazier, and you can see Old China on every street corner, from the old man selling birds from large wicker birdcages to the little boy in the alley pulling down his pants to take a -- okay, it's all incredibly quaint. 

I didn't come to China for glittering shopping malls and designer brands, real or faked. I came for tiled roofs, mosaic murals lining the canal, street markets, leafy neighborhood parks where old men exercise while waving swords or whips, tiny shops selling glimmering lengths of silk in rich jewel colors hanging from bamboo poles, pieces of white and green jade carved into amazing sculptures, wizened old peasant ladies with flowered blouses and gold teeth who seem to regard Life (and foreigners) as a cosmic joke. Boshan has all this, check, check, check and check...

[First published June 27, 2014] In the weeks leading up to my departure for China, I did a furious amount of Google-clicking, learning everything I could about the city and province I was headed for, and spending a lot of time reading forums set up by and for expat ESL teachers.  

I discovered to my dismay that a lot of people who participate in these forums are sarcastic and miserable when they have to endure the naïve and ignorant questions of yet another "newbie." Not content with insulting people who visit the forums and post innocent questions, they also like to call out any examples of ignorance about China that come to their attention. For example, a visiting journalist expressed surprise at how far Western fashions, music, and culture has permeated a supposedly communist country. So he's just a  "clueless twit." 

I gave up on reading Dave's ESL Cafe for this reason, even though it's supposedly the pre-eminent ESL website on the internet. There's just too much negativity, crudeness and nastiness. I occasionally check out Raoul's China Saloon; it's a little friendlier but cynicism and pessimism still abound...

[First published June 28, 2014] In an earlier post, I described how I traveled around like a celebrity, visiting interesting places and eating banquets, for a television program about foreigners in Shandong Province.   Last Tuesday, the celebrity bus came to pick me up at quarter after six and we went to the provincial capital, Jinan, about an hour and a half away. There we met up with a flock of foreigners, representing the other six nearby cities involved in this effort, and a full complement of dignitaries, such as the vice-governor of the province, and scads of cameramen and photographers.  Together, we toured beautiful Danming Lake, fed by underground springs and home to the largest water lilies I've ever seen. 

Some other highlights -- listening to the members of the Greater Jinan Peking Opera Society performing in the open air, (at least I presume that's who they were -- I loved them), listening to a man in traditional scholar's garb declaim some poetry (awesome), and touring a traditional Chinese courtyard home. Followed of course by a bountiful lunch... 

[first published June 23, 2014] I'm part-way through The Long March: the True History of China's Founding Myth, by Sun Shuyun. Previously, about the only things I really knew about the Red Army's Long March was that it was long. And it was a march. The author has deftly combined the memories of Long March veterans with her painstaking research and her personal reactions as she realizes that the darker side of this epic journey has been hidden for propaganda purposes. Very readable.

I just finished Lessons from China: America in the Hearts and Mind of the World's Most Important Rising Generation, by Amy B. Werbel, who spent a year teaching and lecturing at Chinese universities as a Fulbright scholar. Her first days in China and her first reactions were a lot like mine and, I suppose, thousands of other laowais;  she has written a good chronicle of life in China.  So if you're headed for a university job in China, this could be a worthwhile preview. Trigger warning: Professor Werbel is a post-modernist art expert and her world view won't be shared by everyone. If reading phrases such as "gender is a social construct" is traumatizing for you, best avoid this book.

If you are interested in China and haven't read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang,  -- well, get this book. Get this book!!  Some friends gave it to me and I cracked it open to console and distract me on the night that I lost my election bid for school trustee. I was awake until four in the morning. Could not put it down. It's that good. 

Chang and her husband recently published a sympathetic biography of the Dowager Empress Cixi. They also wrote a scathing biography of Mao. I think all three books are banned in China. It will be interesting to see if, over time, their research on Mao and Cixi overturns the verdict of history.