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Thoughts on J. D. Salinger

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

The death of J. D. Salinger has been on people’s minds as of late.  His stories and the mysterious man who wrote them have been contemplated by an untold number of Americans (and no doubt foreigners as well) at one point or another during their lifetimes.  I am not one to reread many books from my adolescence, and in fact I have only read The Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories once each.  I first picked up Catcher in the Rye when I was thirteen or so and was in a rented house on the coast of South Carolina with family.  The book was not mine, belonging instead to the unseen owners of the house, but it’s red cover drew me to it like nothing else.  Knowing only a little of the importance of the book I made the choice to steal the copy, one which my adolescent self later regretted.  I didn’t actually begin to read it until later that summer on a family trip.  One afternoon while reading the book as I sat in the shade of a porch I was called to do some kind of chore (what I can’t remember).  At that moment an older woman, whose identity I no longer recall except that I remember her being strong and respected (some family friend, I think), called out: “Wait, he’s reading The Catcher in the Rye!”  It was decided that it would be best for me to stay engrossed in the novel rather than get up and do some work.  I remember thinking how I had never seen an adult give such deference to a novel.  The meaning was clear: the act of reading that book is one that all young teenage Americans should live.  I finished the novel that day.

Posted in Books, Personal, Reading, U.S.A. | No Responses »
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Geithner: Our New Chinese Speaking Treasury Secretary

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Have you been following the developments of President-elect Obama’s Cabinet?  I have.  Recently Obama announced who will be in his economic team, the people who will have to get us out the immeasurably deep hole we are all sitting in.  The new Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, will have the Herculean task of orchestrating the bailout and whatever stimulus package Obama will be giving us (The New York Times reports).

Timothy Geithner is the relatively young president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and as you might know has been the, “primary engineer of the government’s response to the recent financial meltdown.”  But did you know that his childhood was spent all over the world, including in Zimbabwe, India and Thailand?

When he went to Dartmouth for his undergraduate degree, class of 1983, he had a double major in government and Asian studies along with a concentration in Chinese.  While he was at Dartmouth he even worked as a Chinese language drill instructor, was reportedly a very good speaker of the language, and studied abroad in Beijing.  An Asian studies major?  Chinese instructor?  I had no idea!  My mom will be happy to hear that my choice of undergraduate major means I’m in good company.  If you want to learn more you should definitely read this article from The Dartmouth.

This all makes me wonder, what other famous people were Asian studies majors while in college?  I do know that the actor Edward Norton majored in Asian history and minored in Japanese at Yale (short biography here).  I learned that little fact in the summer of 2005 while living in Beijing, where I was offered the job of being Mr. Norton’s stand-in, the guy who stands in for the actor while camera operators take light readings, for the filming of the movie The Painted Veil, a historical drama that takes place in China during the Chinese civil war.  Other than these two men I’m at a loss for what other famous people studied Asian studies.

Posted in America, Economics, Politics, U.S.A. | 1 Response »

Fergus Falls Minnesota Comes to Huaihua

Monday, November 10th, 2008

I’m back from a week in Beijing and a frenzied Halloween weekend spent in Changsha.  There is much to say about my trip and I’ll try to get it written down soon, which I can do now since I have no classes today nor for the next two days.  Today was so interesting I first want to tell y’all about it.

I woke up to a phone call from another English teacher at my school, he had a simple question for me: “Are you coming to the sports meeting?”  Sports meeting?  That happened last week, I told him.  Of course I was wrong and of course I never should have expected the school to take the time to tell me about such important changes in the schedule.  They seem to think I have the ability to read minds.  A minute or two is all the notice they ever give me, which doesn’t bother me so much anymore (especially if the news is good).  So I rushed out to our school track and watched my students march around in front of the Chinese flag and our school’s administration.

School Sports Meeting Huaihua

The sun eventually came out, casting an orange glow on the military style ceremony.  The sheer number of students when put together was amazing, though only the junior and senior 1 and 2 grades participated.  enior 3 students were busy studying in class as they do seven days a week.

School Sports Meeting Huaihua

School Sports Meeting Huaihua

After the opening ceremonies for the sports meeting I went back to my apartment to eat breakfast, which I had skipped in my rush.  However I wasn’t even able to drink some instant coffee before I got another call.  This time I was informed that there was a delegation from America at the front gate and I must come immediately.  What?!  So much for breakfast.

The delegation from America was a group of government officials and business people from Fergus Falls, Minnesota.  I found them standing near their bus being filmed for Hunan TV while they met my school’s headmaster.  My jeans and Red Sox hat felt out of place around so many men in suits, regardless they were happy to see a fellow American.  We walked around the school looking at the cafeteria, student dorms and classroom buildings.

The Minnesotans were there to try and jump start an exchange program between schools in Fergus Falls and Huaihua and to officially designate Huaihua as the sister city of Fergus Falls.  It was a very preliminary meeting from what I could tell, consisting mostly of both sides expressing hope for future deals over the large conference table we sat at.  I told the Superintendent from Minnesota about my experiences as a high school exchange student in Beijing and my friends over at The China Exchange Initative.  The diversity coordinator of the Fergus Falls public schools and I also talked about setting up a pen pal program between my students and students in Minnesota.

Their visit to my school was really brief, they are visiting a hospital and having a banquet with the city’s Mayor later today, but it was wonderful to talk about school life in China with people that are deeply interested.  They couldn’t believe me when I  told them that the students are in class from 7:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night, wash their own clothes by hand and that they clean their own classrooms.  The small steps they took towards forging better ties with the city of Huaihua and my school just made me elated.  For once my time as a teacher in Huaihua seemed to have more meaning than my day to day work would have one think.

Posted in Huaihua, School, U.S.A. | No Responses »

Obama and McCain’s Views on China

Monday, September 15th, 2008

I just got back from a few days in Kunming and should really write about that, but until then here is some more about the U.S. election!

Through the Shanghaiist Blog I just read two briefs given out by the McCain and Obama campiagns regarding what their U.S.-China relations would look like if they were to become President.  These briefs were published by the American Chamber of Commerce.  They are in fact very similar sounding plans which give little insight, but they are all we American expats in China can go by.  Certainly they deserve your time more than the plentiful articles on Sarah Palin do.

Obama’s:

In the coming years, the United States and China face challenges that require fresh thinking and a change from the US policy approach of the past eight years. How the US and China meet these challenges, and the extent to which we can find common ground, will be important both for our own countries and for others in Asia and beyond.China has achieved extraordinary, sustained growth over the past three decades. Hundreds of millions of people in China live better now than most thought possible even two decades ago.

But as China’s leaders acknowledge, China must make some basic adjustments if it is to continue sustained, shared economic growth. China must develop practices that are more environmentally sustainable and less energy intensive, that boost domestic consumption as an engine of growth, that enhance the social safety net, and that encourage indigenous technology innovation. Otherwise, the country’s future performance may fall well short of its potential.

McCain’s:

The resurgence of Asia is one of the epochal events of our time. It is a renaissance that is not only transforming the face of this vast region, but throwing open new opportunities for billions of people on both sides of the Pacific—Americans and Asians alike—to build a safer, more prosperous and freer world.

Seizing these opportunities, however, will require strong American leadership and an unequivocal American commitment to Asia, whose fate is increasingly inseparable from our own. It requires internationalism rather than isolationism, and global trade rather than national protectionism. When our friends and allies in the Asia-Pacific region think of the future, they should expect more—not less—attention, investment and cooperation from the highest levels of the US government.

A central challenge will be getting America’s relationship with China right. China’s double-digit growth rates have brought hundreds of millions out of poverty, energized the economies of its neighbors and produced manifold new economic opportunities. The US shares common interests with China that can form the basis of a strong partnership on issues of global concern, including climate change, trade and proliferation. But some of China’s economic practices, combined with its rapid military modernization, lack of political freedom and close relations with regimes like Sudan and Burma, tend to undermine the very international system on which its rise depends. The next American president must build on the areas of overlapping interest to forge a more durable US-China relationship.

More Links:

China Rises McCain and Obama on China

 

Posted in Politics, U.S.A. | No Responses »