Recently, a man in Hubei was sentenced to life in prison for causing the deaths of four people when he crashed into a group of pedestrians after suffering from an epileptic seizure. Most of the comments in response to the article have centered around how stupid it was of the man to keep his illness Read More
Tag: China
Give the Dog a Bone – Let Guide Dogs in China Help the Visually Impaired!
Last week, when Beijing announced that seeing eye dogs would be allowed on the Beijing metro, my first thought wasn’t “wow, this is a great move on Beijing’s part.” Instead, my first thought was “seeing eye dogs weren’t already allowed on Beijing subways?” followed by “seeing eye dogs aren’t already allowed on all of China’s Read More
Care for comfort women begins at home
HARDLY a week goes by that the Chinese Government does not criticize the Japanese Government for refusing to acknowledge and apologize for its crimes in China during World War II. Since 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, the outcry against Japan and calls to remember the Rape of Read More
China – Not As Safe As You Think
In the past, when people have asked me “is China safe?” I have answered “yes.” And most people would agree. In fact, if you Google “is China safe?” you will find plenty of forums that tout the safety of China, even for women. Yet I have been seeing more and more incidents of Western women Read More
Frog by Mo Yan – Book Review
Talk about disappointing. Two years ago, when Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature for Frog, Westerners and Chinese were shocked and elated. The Chinese were ecstatic that a Chinese writer won the honor at all (he’s the only Chinese writer who lives in China to have ever won the prize) and Westerners were Read More
Chinese-Americans vs. American-Born Chinese
If you’ve never been to China, you probably haven’t heard the term “American-Born Chinese.” It is a uniquely Chinese phrase used to identify people who live in China of Chinese ethnicity but were born abroad, often truncated as ABC (or BBC for British-born Chinese or CBC for Canadian-born Chinese, and so on). In America, we Read More
Throwback Thursday – On the Li River
Yangshuo, Guangxi Autonomous Region, about an hour from Guilin, is one of the most beautiful towns in China. We spent about a week there when we first came to China since that is where the Buckland Training Center is located. We’ve been there twice since. There are so many beautiful and interesting places to visit Read More
Conversations on Adoption in China
While walking to the subway with two of my coworkers yesterday, I had the following conversation: Sarah: Why do you live in China instead of Thailand? Me: Well, my husband and I are planning on adopting here in China. Sarah: Oh, is that very difficult for foreigners? Me: Yes. It is very difficult. It takes Read More
Throwback Thursday – Learning to Cook
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog and in my book, moving to China (especially to a rural area) meant having to relearn how to cook. At our first school, Lanjiang Zhizhong, three of our best students, Zoe, Arlene, and Jack, came over one night to help give me a crash course. Even 4 years Read More
Erotic, Antique Chinese Art (NSFW)
Over the National Day Holiday, Seth, Zoe and I went to Macau for a day. We originally planned to go to Disneyland, but there was a mix-up with Zoe’s visa and she ended up with one for Macau (“Hong Kong is China” my ass if Chinese citizens need a visa to go there). But we Read More