Tom |
An irregular blog.
The previous post is .
The next post is Mr. China's Son.
I also have a photo gallery that I'm not sure what to do with.
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Mr. China’s Son is a unique autobiography.
He Liyi belongs to one of China’s minorities, the Bai, and he lives in a remote area of northwestern Yunnan Province. In 1979 his wife sold her fattest pig to buy him a shortwave radio. He spent every spare moment listening to the BBC and VOA in order to improve the English he learned at college between 1950 and 1953. For “further practice,” he decided to write down his life story in English. Humorous and unfiltered by translation, his autobiography is direct and personal, full of richly descriptive images and phrases from his native Bai Language.
He was labeled an anti-Party rightist after the Communist revolution, and sent to a state labor farm for thought-reform in 1957. His life is full of struggle and brutal injustice, but his writing is very hopeful and doggedly optimistic, even when he writes about abandoning his only dreams and walking away from love (Chapter 8—Unconquerable Problems Lead to Marriage) and desperately surviving the Cultural Revolution (Chapter 12—Stealing Other People’s Shit).
He’s online at Mr. China’s Son Cultural Exchange Bridge, and I hope to visit him in China.
Comment [2]
* * *
07 APRIL—Depart Newport, RI
12 APRIL—Depart Jacksonville, FL
13 APRIL—Depart San Francisco, CA
24 APRIL—Depart Tokyo, Japan
24 APRIL—Arrive in Hong Kong, PRC
Comment [4]
* * *
Two work-weeks. Two weekends. Tomorrow, basically. I’ve got all my travel refences gathered.
JAPAN REFERENCES
For my 10 days in Tokyo, Japan, I’m taking a couple references. First, I selected Time Out Tokyo guide “written by a team of local experts, with a unique insider perspective,” because according to the amazon.com reviews, Lonely Planet Tokyo is bland and dissapointing. There’s an odd obsession with sex running through the Time Out guide, which is encouragingly subversive.
I’m taking the Berlitz Japanese Phrase Book & Dictionary mainly for ettiquette. And to say “I am allergic to many fish.” Fortunately tuna is ok, and I love love love smoked BBQ eel. It’s melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
Finally, I’ve got the Tokyo City Atlas—a Bilingual Guide. There are no street names in Tokyo. Seriously, streets don’t have names. It’s different, Japanese, and therefore implicitly awesome. Like Ghost in the Shell or smoked eel.
CHINA REFERENCES
And for China, I’ll be carrying the encyclical Lonely Planet China, along with The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese and the Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary: Chinese. All of those products are well reviewed on amazon, though I’ve been able to find much cheaper lodging that the Lonely Planet guide lists by searching hostelworld.com.
Maybe I can get an Amazon.com sponsorship.
Comment [5]
* * *
I have less than 12 hours in my apartment now. Pack-up is in the throw-everything-into-the-car phase. Yesterday I made goodbyes with a couple friends in Newport. Tomorrow there’s a pizza party at work to send me off.
In the morning I have to pick up my malarials, change the oil in my Focus, call the foot doctor about foot pad inserts, print out and notarize some papers, wrap up about 2 weeks worth of work in four hours, pick up a package from the UPS store, move out of my apartment.
There’s other todo-list items I’m leaving out, but I also have to drive to Washington, DC.
* * *
I’ve been up, jet-lagged, for about an hour. Got some online errands done. Didn’t shower. In 4 hours I will be rising out of SFO on United Airlines flight 837 nonstop to Tokyo Narita. It’s something like 13 hours, so I’ll have time to build a plan for my time in Tokyo. If I had a CD player, I would go through a couple Japanese lessons, but I don’t, so I’m stuck with “sumimasen, watashi wa nihongo ga wakarimasen” and “konichiwa”.
Since last Friday I’ve been travelling. Since the Friday before that I’ve been running on fumes—4-7 hours of sleep.
Comment [3]
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http://tom.spacing-guild.net/2006/02/08/mr-chinas-sonYou scrolled to the bottom!
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