The Christmas Entourage
We welcomed Christmas Cheer, but she then invited her friend Christmas Gluttony, who in turn brought along her cousins Christmas Shame and Regret. Those cousins didn’t think much of our home-made egg nog.
Now we need to meet up with Christmas Gym and Christmas Diet, those needy and pathetic acquaintances that we can never seem to shake off. 😤
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Milestone Anniversary
5 years married. 💍💙
We celebrated the day by picking pu’er tea in the hills of Xishuangbanna, the area where China borders Myanmar and Laos. More photos/videos to come..!
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The Slumps Behind The Smiles
I’m not going to lie, I’ve been in a massive slump these last few weeks. Lethargy; brain-fog; inattentiveness: the works. 🌧😵💫
I wouldn’t say I’m out of the slump yet. But I’m grateful that the last few days coincided with Thanksgiving, an early Christmas dinner, and the first night of Chanukah. These three evenings allowed us to share the company of some lovely humans, and made me feel a little more reconnected. ❤️🦃🎅🕎
I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way. So rather than just share a bunch of happy photos, I wanted to be honest about my emotional state behind them. As we approach the end of the year, let me remind you to please take care of yourself, and - if you have the capacity - those around you. 👫👬👫
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Beijing Rocks!
I’ve always felt intimidated by Beijing. To me it’s always been a big, cold city where the power of government looms large. But just one evening with these warm and generous people has already helped to disabuse me of that hang-up. 😊
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Inconveniently Different
My trip this week is in the contentious region of Xinjiang, which you may have heard about in the news.
I live in China, where it’s not possible to have an open public discussion about these things. But here’s what I will say.
I believe to my core that a society should not be judged on how it treats its majority. That’s actually the easy part. A society should be judged on how it treats those who are most ‘inconveniently different’ to the majority.
Maybe that’s the Aboriginals in Australia; the Roma (gypsies) in Eastern Europe; the Rohingya in Myanmar; the Kurds in Turkey; the list goes on and on, and there’s one in your society too. You could even argue that the Trans Rights and the Black Lives Matter movements belong in this same awkwardly named category.
Please take a moment to think about the most ‘inconveniently different’ person near you. And in the meantime, here’s a photo I took today of a cute Uighur boy playing with a bucket. 👦🏻🪣
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15 Years and an International Border
In 2006 I was in Tajikistan, travelling on the Pamir Highway as part of a 2-month trip through Central Asia.
This week a group of us have flown to the far West of China to travel down the Karakoram Highway, which hugs the border with Tajikistan on its way to Pakistan.
There are 15 years and an international border separating these two photos. But otherwise... not much difference!
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Defeated, Deflated and Depressed
These last two weeks have been a struggle.
I need to submit the draft of my masters thesis next week, but I have been feeling totally defeated 🥊, deflated 🎈 and depressed 💔.
Luckily a Valentine’s Day change of scenery has helped to salvage a little sliver of sanity.
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Don't Judge a Passport by its Cover
While always mindful of the doors it has opened, I have never defined my identity by the passport I carry. And I’m definitely not going to start now.
Yes, I’ve lived in Asia for 17 years. Yes, my passport has recently changed colour. But the blood that runs through my veins is, and always will be, European.
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Mosaic of China Season 02 Begins
I spend most of my time either a) scuttling between coffee shops and a tiny recording studio 🦀 or b) holed up at home, editing audio in my loungewear. 🦨
So it was lovely to bring together 100 people to celebrate the upcoming launch of the new season of the Mosaic of China podcast. A huge thanks to everyone who came, you have made this project come to life. 🥂🥰
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The New Normal in Shanghai
I’m conscious that for some people, I’m the only person they know on the ground in China. It’s been a while since I posted anything about the pandemic situation here. So here’s a quick update from today, October 21st 2020.
At this point we have avoided a large-scale second wave. But there are still localised sporadic outbreaks, after which that particular area goes back into a mini-lockdown. Testing, contact-tracing, the works. Right now there’s one in the city of Qingdao, a city on the Northeastern seaboard. During this period, anyone traveling back from a newly infected area goes into quarantine again. But all the while, the entire rest of the country continues as normal. And after a couple of weeks, the city comes out of lockdown and rejoins the rest of the country.
“Normal” feels pretty normal at this point in Shanghai. Many people still wear masks, but mainly as a courtesy. They’re only mandatory on public transport, at airports, and in other places where people might congregate in larger numbers. I never leave the house without at least having one in my pocket. It’s the same story with the health tracker on our phones, we’re always ready to show the code when asked, but these instances are getting rarer. Some buildings still take your temperature before allowing you to enter, but again it isn’t mandatory across the board. Most places are back to 100% occupancy.
Like everywhere else, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But this is a quick snapshot of life in Shanghai right now.
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Fishscale Clouds
A beautiful morning sky. But according to the phrase《鱼鳞云，雨淋淋》these ‘fishscale’ clouds mean... a typhoon is on its way.
I have also found out that this is called ‘mackerel sky’ and ‘buttermilk sky’. In France it’s ‘ciel moutonné’ (fleecy sky); in Spain ‘cielo empedrado’ (cobbled sky); in Germany ‘Schäfchenwolken’ (sheep clouds), and in Italy ‘pecorelle’ (like little sheep).
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