Adventures in Asia

Everything you’ve heard about religious life here is probably true, somewhere and at some point. This country has experienced vast changes in a short amount of time, not only economically, but also culturally and religiously. My goal in this post is to express some of my experience in the last few years, mostly living in one of the wealthier provinces. Disclaimer: My experience is not universal to the entire country – a lot of religious freedom (or lack thereof) depends on local government. So. Am I free to attend church? Puffy, white clouds on a sweaty Sunday afternoon~ Yes! I’ve lived in two different provinces, and in both I was/am free to attend church. There is one approved “denomination” here, called the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. The three selfs are: self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation. This means the church is lead by locals, financed by locals, and spread by locals. (Foreign support never goes over well.) It is Patriotic because the governmen...

I married my happy, hardworking, handsome husband 10 months ago, and I didn’t take his last name. Naturally, many people back home asked, “WHY?” My marriage certificate is a little red book! There are two main reasons: paperwork nightmare and my husband’s Chinese culture. Here's what a normal American woman does to legally change her name: provide her marriage certificate at the bank, change her social security card, and update her drivers license, all in person. But I live in China. So I would need to go to the nearest American consulate (2 hours away by train) to renew my passport (which costs $120 US). I would then have to make another trip to pick up my new passport (train tickets totaling to another $120 US). Then I would have to fly home ($1,000 US round trip – if I’m blessed with a good deal) to complete all of the things normal women do… Only hiccup being my marriage certificate is in Chinese. Like, the only English word on that entire document is my ...

“Oh, China! My sibling/friend/acquaintance adopted from China!” While this isn’t exactly a FAQ, it is a Frequently Stated Observation (FSO?) when my life-in-China comes up in conversation with people back home. For many, the only personal connection they have with the exotic Far East is adoption . (And mine, too, until I got into English teaching. And Asian TV shows .) There are several fascinating reasons why adoption from China to the U.S. exploded back in the day, and why it’s steadily decreasing now. Random picture of blossoms in spring~ Why did so many people I know adopt from China? Americans began adopting children internationally in the 1940s [read this article by PBS] , and the U.S. continues to be the highest receiving nation of children in the world. This article by CNN goes so far as to say that “the story of international adoption is an American story,” and “The United States adopts more children internationally, but also domestically, than the rest of ...

“If I have one more person ask me if I eat dog or cat, I think I’m going to scream. That should be one of your blog posts! It’s what everybody wants to know.” (Direct quote from a friend who just returned home to the U.S. after six months in China.) Pretty place setting! But what poor pet will soon fill it??? Unfortunately, I do not have any graphic stories of dog or cat meat, as I haven’t eaten or seen any during my 3.5 years of living in China. My most traumatic food stories involve having to give up macaroni and cheese, and eating meat with the bones still in (and sometimes with its head and feet still connected). I’ve also had to eat more vegetables here (Oh! The horror!!), and there are SO many more vegetables to eat! Often my Chinese husband’s vocabulary and the dictionary fail us, and he simply tells me that what’s on the table is a “Chinese vegetable.” Eventually I just stopped asking. Chinese food in China is nothing like Chinese food in the US, by a long sh...