from what we see and know, the ‘chinese workers’ for the most part are simple, hard-working individuals that are very eager and grateful to be able to participate in their country’s economic boon.. there is a strong work ethic over here that you can’t help but admire, born at least in part by the fact that they don’t have to look very far back to know of times very different from today (whereas i can barely remember a few comments my grandparents made about great depression days)
also admirable, the chinese worker is not working just for himself and not just for today – most of these workers are sending significant portions of their paychecks home to help families and parents in the villages and rural areas they migrated from, and yet they still manage to save much larger portions of their paycheck than we do in the west..
good move, time magazine (but i’m still not sure about ben bernanke..)
well, here i am again.. apologizing for not following through on my promise to keep this blog active.. but, we have had a lot happening in recent days including relocating from our home of the last 3-1/2 years in beijing to guangzhou in south china (more on our new venture later)
we just arrived in the states a little over 12 hours ago for an extended holiday visit and the birth of our first grandchild (due on christmas day).. its our first christmas home since 2006 and we are really looking forward to being with family and seeing as many of our friends as possible..
what a treat it was just before we left to enjoy a little going-away ‘jiaozi party’ at the healing home a few days ago.. how blessed we are to have the privilege of serving among such a special group of children and staff!
in addition to the majority ‘han’ race, china officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic minorities (somewhat akin to the ‘american indian’ in the states)
here is a link to a fascinating photo essay of all 56 tribes showing some of the cultural diversity and richness that still exists in china today
for those who may have thought my comment below about beijing controlling the weather a bit extreme, witness the below from the BBC (see the full article and video at the following link):
Scientists ’cause’ Beijing snow
Monday, November 2nd
Chinese meteorologists say they brought about Beijing’s earliest snowfall in a decade, after seeding rain clouds with silver iodide to ease a drought. The Weather Modification Office sprayed clouds with 186 doses of the chemical to bring rain for the wheat crop, the Beijing Evening News said. But the arrival of a cold front caused heavy snow to fall, disrupting road, rail and air travel. Cloud seeding is often used in China in an attempt to bring on rain. The country’s north is prone to droughts, while the south is often flooded.
regardless of the cause, this was quite a surprise for us to wake up under a blanket of white this early in the year (nov 1st) ! needless to say, sarah and the other children here had a blast..
here is a neat 360 degree view of ‘downtown’ beijing during the national day parade.. it gives a really good view of the center of the city that has been our home for the last 3-1/2 years, with a couple of exceptions – the blue skies and white fluffy clouds are something we rarely see (yes, beijing can even control the weather, seriously), and there are usually many more cars and people around
although the big event last thursday (october 1st) was limited to around 200,000 spectators, the decorations and many of the floats were left in place for the public to visit afterwards.. janice, sarah and i came into the city for a few days during the holiday week, and sunday afternoon i decided to venture out to tiananmen square
now, i’ve been to tiananmen quite a few times, but never have i seen anywhere near this many people.. there was definitely no limit on the number of visitors on this day!
in spite of the jostle and press, the people for the most part seemed quite happy, festive and proud of their country’s achievements here at the republic’s 60th birthday party..
for us, it’s quite interesting as ‘laowai’ (foreigners) to observe and experience the patriotic expressions of a country other than our own.. and although we were clearly outsiders at this party, we certainly were never made to feel unwelcome.. (and no, i wasn’t being escorted below.. i took advantage of the photo-op and jumped between these two guys)
each of the 34 provinces and special regions of china were represented by floats at the parade, and these floats were left parked in tiananmen for all to view.. i’m guessing it has some kind of historical significance, but i was nevertheless a bit surprised to see a christian church on aomen’s float (macau)..
the big news here in beijing, yea, in all of china, is the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the peoples republic of china (1949-2009)
this is indeed, a major happening, in some ways bigger than the 2008 summer olympics.. its my understanding that ‘60′ is a significant number in the culture here (we would place more emphasis on 50, or 75, for example).. if the olympics was china’s coming out party, this event is china’s self confidently taking its seat among the super-powers of the world today
in the weeks and days leading to october 1st we have seen some really serious security over here.. checkpoints at all roads leading into the city, a ‘lock down’ on the city during event rehearsals, and even bans on kite flying and pigeons! those lucky enough to have windows or balconies overlooking chang’an avenue have even received official letters warning them not to open windows, step onto the balconies or invite friends over for parties..
the security has even reached out here to our humble little village 45 minutes south of the city, although its a bit more relaxed compared to what you would see in the city..
security checkpoint here outside our compound
as far as the event itself, we of course will not be able to get anywhere near, this party is ‘by invitation only’ for a hand-picked couple of hundred thousand (out of beijing’s 13-14 million), but like most, we will be in front of our TV watching..
you don’t have to live in china very long to realize that many people believe very strongly that numbers have the power to influence their lives.. this belief is often tied to the phonetic pronunciation of the number resembling the sound of another word (the number 8, for example, is considered very lucky because its pronunciation is similar to a word meaning ‘prosper’ or ‘wealth’)
we regularly see cell phone simcards with lucky numerals or patterns being sold at quite a premium to ones with more ordinary digits.. a local phone number consisting of all 8’s was reportedly sold for USD $270,723 in Chengdu
i remember when i bought a car tag a few years back that there was a system in place that allowed me to choose from a set of randomly generated numbers, designed to give people at least some options in selecting their own ‘lucky number’
seen in the press in just the last week or two:
China couples flock to marry on auspicious 09/09/09 (September 10, 2009, AFP)
Tens of thousands of Chinese rushed to get married on Wednesday, hoping that the 09/09/09 date would bring longevity to their weddings and lives. Besides meaning “nine, nine”, “jiu, jiu” in Chinese also means “for a long time,” making Wednesday an auspicious day to get married. The fact that another nine is added for 2009 has only made the day luckier in the world’s most populous nation, state media asserted. In Beijing alone, 18,979 couples queued, beating the previous one-day record of 15,646 set on August 8, 2008, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
‘Lucky’ number plate gang jailed (Tuesday, 22 September 2009, BBC)
A Beijing court has jailed and fined five men for fighting over a “lucky” licence plate containing the auspicious number 8888, Chinese media report. The men used knives and clubs to beat anyone who came near a machine issuing the number plates at a Beijing vehicle registration centre, Beijing News said. Several people were injured, one of them seriously, it added. Three men were sentenced to one year in jail. All were ordered to pay $8,000 (£5,000) to compensate the victims. The incident occurred in July last year as number plates ending with the numbers “8888″ were about to be issued, the reports said. The ringleader, identified only as Xu, had paid four accomplices 10,000 yuan ($1,500) to guard the machine.
what christian’s story (see below) gives the china adoption community is something we have very little of – real stories and glimpses into the lives of chinese families who have made the decision to leave their children
what we most often hear are simple anecdotal tales of the young mother who tearfully leaves her child motivated only by hopes of giving him / her a better life.. no doubt that has many times been the case, but more often than not, real life is not quite so simple..
take a look at some of the facts in christian’s story:
christian’s parents were professionals (his father is a doctor), not peasants from the countryside as is most often assumed
their decision to abandon their son was motivated (at least in part) by fear of repercussions from violating china’s ‘one child policy’ (this of course is not so uncommon)
christian was sent to live with relatives, and later returned to live with his birth family under the guise of being ‘foster parents’ (we know this happens quite often – children being sent away to live with relatives and often moving from place to place)
the circumstances of how christian was actually separated from family members and ended up under the care of an orphanage in a neighboring province are still not clear, further demonstrating the complexities that can be a part of these children’s backgrounds
i expect we will hear more stories like this in the coming years and i know that they will not all be pleasant (i have often defined adoption as “a redemptive response to a tragedy”) – yet, i welcome them, knowing that such ‘real stories’, as unpleasant as they may be, will ultimately help our children gain the understanding they need to process and come to grips with their past as they age and mature
a fascinating story recently played out in the news – christian norris, a 17 year old adopted chinese boy living in america was recently united with his biological parents and the uncle and grandmother who raised him in china until he was six years old
for an adopted child from china to find any information about his / her birth parents is very unusual since parents over here are not allowed to ‘legally’ abandon a child, and thus there are usually no records or other traces of the child’s origin
(the details of this story can be found at the following link, or you can watch the videos below)
the coming decade will see increasing numbers of these children entering their teenage years (china’s international adoption program began in the early 90’s), and i fully expect many of them will be asking questions and searching for answers just as christian did
we (their adopted parents) have given our young children the best answers we could to their early questions, but i suspect our simple stories will be less and less satisfying as our children mature and the questions become harder
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