Preface

A breathing space, a settling, a convergence of favorable circumstances; all have created the impetus in me to finally start this blog. Three months into my time here in China, there is much I could recount, but as I find explaining tedious, I won't. So, this blog shall begin like one of those stories without an exposition, leaving you to piece together the backgrounds of the 'who's and 'what's on your own by inference, or at the most, small expositional digressions. But knowing me, and my dislike of narrative, I suspect that as it progresses it won't resemble much of a story at all. Besides, I think writing that tries to explain itself too much insults the reader, and you, friends and family, I know are all intelligent people.

I hate trying to explain, I prefer to let the explanations present themselves out of the process of writing, because I believe I can only begin to understand things beyond the dead discourse about them when I create processes by which I circumvent my systematizing mind (in whatever small degree). I feel this is especially important when trying to reflect about China and the Chinese in any receptive way, because I think our current discourse about China is so stale and inadequate.

Enough of declarations and manifestos. It's already sounding pretentious, and I'm already thinking way too much. Besides, I really don't know what form this will take.

If you ever have any questions, feel free to post them in comments, and I will do my best to clarify.

Note: the title, "A Song in Slow Time for My Thatched Hut Wrecked by the Autumn Wind" is a combination of the titles of two ancient Chinese poems that I read a few days ago, in two collections I picked up recently, and identify with for the moment: "A Song in Slow Time", a yuefu folk-song from the Han dynasty, and "My Thatched Hut is Wrecked by the Autumn Wind", by the poet Du Fu, from the Tang dynasty. I expect the title to change several times as the content develops.

A later correction/clarification:

I have realized, after doing a bit more writing, that I actually quite like explaining. Or rather, I am an obsessive explainer. I can only hope in this blog, then, not to refrain from explaining being in China, but to explain it in a way that is more alive, loosely structured, and open-ended than I have yet encountered. I suppose I try to do so to do the experience justice, to try to understand this place, this culture, and this people on their own terms. To maintain receptivity.

Rather, it is a kind of recounting by expat TEFL teachers that I dislike. There has been a lot written in this vein, and I don't wish to repeat it here. If you'd like to know more about the details of a TEFL teacher's life in China, there is a pretty good guide here: Middle Kingdom Life.

It still does hold true that I need to try to circumvent my mind from time to time. My obsession with explaining becomes tiring and bogs me down. Processes designed to let in the 'irrational', or at least less considered, let some fresh air into the room when my mind gets stuffy. The purpose I suppose is not to not explain, but to create opportunities for a reconfiguration of explanations, to explain better than I could if I tried consciously, or to fleeting point the way to such a reconfiguration through the emergence in this process of hints. So I suppose such 'irrational' writing may find it's way into this blog from time to time.