Archives for Category "China"
Sample Chapter: Money in China
This comes a little late after my last sample chapter, but I’ve found it’s hard to get in the right spirit of writing when the job search is so grim. This is supposed to be a funny and entertaining book, after all, but you can’t be funny when you’re depressed.
Well… the book isn’t always going to be joke after joke. There is a serious tone in there, too, when I talk about problems in China or delve into my own, personal struggles. This next chapter, This is the Part Where I Talk About Money, is a little of both. If you weren’t sure, it’s about money.
Chinese Souvenirs: Iron Paintings
The US may not do anything for International Women’s Day (March 8th), but China does. There’s always something happening on that day. When I lived in Hefei in 2005, the local government held a big show at the park and asked the female foreign teachers from my school to perform a few musical numbers. As a thank you, the government gave them all one of these iron paintings. I got one, too, just for showing up with them. I’m that special.
The painting is of the welcoming pine from the Yellow Mountains. It’s one of the most iconic features of the mountain range, and yet… I don’t think I actually noticed it when I was there. Guess I missed out. I was told this painting was made from real iron from the Yellow Mountains, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
The Secret Great Wall of China
I’ve been to the Great Wall three times now, and each time was different. The second time I went in 2006, I joined a tour group that was going to the “Secret Wall.” That makes it sound pretty special, but I think you should know what you’re getting into before doing the same. The Secret Wall looks like this:
It’s a completely unrestored section where the wall has been worn down to a low height and is covered in vegetation. Only one of the iconic guard towers was still standing, but it wasn’t stable enough to be able to climb atop it. Since I’d been to the wall before, it was still kind of neat to see this “secret” section. If you’re only going to walk the Great Wall once, though, walk one of the restored sections. You won’t regret it.
Sample Chapter: Chinese Food
While I want teaching to be a big part of the Yes China! book, I felt it was also important to spend time talking about my background and what it was like living in China. These non-teaching chapters are shorter and written more like an essay. Because of that, I don’t feel as confident about them as I do the story-like classroom segments, but I’m posting a sample chapter, Keep Telling Yourself it Tastes Like Chicken, in hopes of getting some feedback. This one’s about food.
Chinese Souvenirs: Novelty Pencil Holders
Of all the things I packed home from China, this was the one souvenir that didn’t make it unharmed. His head broke off. My brother bought one, too, that didn’t survive the suitcase trip, either. I’m not sure if the airline’s treatment of our luggage is to blame or if it was the poor craftsmanship of Chinese toys. Probably both.
I know this isn’t a very Chinese-looking souvenir, but I wanted to mention it, because it highlights a popular trend in shopping in China: the novelty junk store. These little shops are everywhere and sell a strange assortment of jewelry, stuffed animals, cell phone toys, anime figurines, keychains, stickers, cutesy notebooks, and gag gifts. In other words, they’re a godsend to every Chinese girl and a bane to every Chinese boyfriend.
First Two Chapters of the China Book
I mentioned earlier that I wanted to post a couple chapters from the book as I went through it again, so here are Chapters 1 & 2 as a PDF. Both of these are teaching chapters, since I wanted the book to start out with something chaotic before I got into the format of every other chapter being about non-teaching subjects.
Chapter 1 is based on my first few days as an ILP volunteer while Chapter 2 moves to the primary school… four years later. It’s not going to be completely chronological. I don’t want it to feel so much like a novel, which is what was hurting my first version of the book. Rather, I want it to feel like a series of essays or short stories that can stand alone but, obviously, help paint a larger picture.
The Rough Draft is Done!
I used to be an avid writer. I could whip out a 200-page story in a few weeks. But this book about China has taken me a long time to finish. I don’t know if I’m losing my touch or if I’m sick of working on the same book (this was a re-write of a book first started in 2006 and heavily edited again in 2008) or if I just have too much on my mind right now. The good news is that the rough draft is done! But it’s far from over. I need to go back now and edit it chapter by chapter. That’s always a fun process. I want to post sample chapters as I work my way through the second draft, though, so stay tuned.
The book, which I’ve always planned to call Yes China!, follows a pattern where one chapter is about teaching and the next chapter is about some aspect of my life or life in China, so on and so forth. Most of the teaching chapters deal with ILP and working with Chinese kids in a small classroom setting, but I also cover what I did at the primary, training, and middle schools. The “life chapters,” on the other hand, include topics like food, traveling, dating, living arrangements, bathrooms, and getting sick. Sounds fun, right?
Chinese Snack: Tian Yu Ya Ge
Tian Yu Ya Ge (or 天语雅阁) is a special kind of snack bar in China that often masquerades as a coffee shop. Such is the case with Rich Coffee. When Chinese people say they are going to a tea house, though, this is usually what they mean. Everyone likes to hang out at these places on a hot summer day, because that 天语雅阁 moniker means there’s a self-help menu. All you can eat junk food like potato chips and sunflower seeds and all you can drink tea, coffee, and milk shakes.
While none of the food is that great (I went home with a stomachache every single time), it’s hard to resist the 25-yuan price. Yep, for only $4, you can sit in there all day (some of my friends really would stay there all day) and eat yourself sick. I think most Chinese customers go pretty light on the snacks and drinks, though, because the servers were always struggling to keep up with my requests. Hey, when a place is all you can eat, I don’t hold back.
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