Name: Katherine or Katya or 凯瑟琳
Country of origin: USA
Occupation: Educator
Years in China: 11
How did your journey in China begin?
That is not as easy a question as it seems.
* Was it every time I visited a new big city as a child and declared I’d live there someday?
— In hindsight, “big” is a relative term, since we considered them big, but most of them had a population smaller than Xiamen does now. Still, I was always drawn to cities.
* Was it my first time in Chinatown in New York City? Where I bought a black qipao and a Canto-pop album by Leslie Cheung (张国荣)?
— I had no clue at the time, wearing it for choir & band performances, as well as in my senior pictures, that I’d end up here. And the album? Didn’t know what language it was until years later, but I still hear songs from it in restaurants from time to time.
* Was it when I first studied Mandarin?
— That was at the University of Hull in the UK during my undergraduate degree. They offered Passport Languages, where you had a once-a-week evening class. Only 4 of the 20+ people who started the class finished the year: Me, a French-Born Chinese guy, and 2 British sisters (who spoke Cantonese as a heritage language, and wanted to learn Mandarin, plus reading & writing). I still try to find that teacher online to thank her and tell her where I ended up.
* Was it when I knew for certain I would be coming to China and started preparing?
— First, investigating the cities I could find schools in and settling on Xiamen. How? Through unscientific polling of every Chinese acquaintance I had in the USA. Every time Xiamen was mentioned, I’d hear: Oh, what a lovely city.” Second, practicing Mandarin again with a language partner, after 8 years of doing nothing but write 谢谢 from time to time.
* Was it the first day I stepped foot in China?
— That was Shanghai, August 1, 2010. I went to the Shanghai Museum that afternoon, loved it, although was convinced the nice young man following me around to “practice English” was actually doing a tea scam. He wasn’t, he truly just wanted to practice and discovered people were less likely to run away in museums. The second day, I spent at the World Expo, almost fainting in the queue, helping many students with their summer English homework, and gaining one brilliant pen pal.
* Was it when I arrived in Xiamen, my home ever since?
— August 5, 2010. It was originally a temporary commitment, in case I hadn’t liked China. Here I am writing this, more than a decade later, from the same city. Clearly, I liked it.
* Was it when I made the decision to extend the temporary stay to a long-term one?
— If you’d asked me in the first year or two, I’d have said I’d move on in 2-3 years. But here I am…
So, maybe the answer is in the numbers?
— 2 jobs – or – 2 local cats rescued – or – 2 surgeries – or – 2 passports
— 5 years of calligraphy lessons
— 8 apartments
— 16 email newsletters (in those early years)
— 23 provincial and provincial administrative regions visited
— 37 entry stamps
— 42, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything (if only we knew the question)
— Dozens of tourist sites hiked/photographed/toured
— 100s of cities visited
— 300-something photos of pandas taken
So, I don’t really know when or how it began, exactly, or when it will end. But it has been a wonderful journey, and very different than where I grew up. As I tell my students (and the occasional inquisitive taxi driver): Iowa (my home state) is roughly the same size as Fujian. But the entire state has a population less than Xiamen (although when I moved here years ago, the populations were about the same). Which of my numbers will keep going up?
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