Chen

"You know he is blind, so the night is nothing to him ... 

I think that is the perfect metaphor"

Ai Wei Wei

Video from the NYTimes ...

more from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/world/asia/chen-guangcheng-blind-lawyer-escapes-house-arrest-china.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2_20120428

Partially Packed ...

There's been a lot going on, but I haven't really been blogging, and now I'm not sure where to start to bring things sort of up to speed.

We've been traveling and planning travel and its exciting to pull out suitcases and passports. It's nerve wracking to wait on the Chinese embassy for visas. And wonderful when you see them finally glued into a whole page of those blue document books that declare our Americanness.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself ...

In mid-February EHJ and I flew to Orlando for four days for her 10 year old trip. We spent two full days at Universal and three nights at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando. This will get its own post ... but can I just say how easy it is to travel with her, and just how much fun! And, we shared a little silent chuckle when the lady next to us on our flight home said, "thanks for not being one of those kinds of kids who scream." As if. And, anyway Orlando to ORD is nothing compared to PEK to ORD!

This week the dashing Mr Johnson is off again in Deutschland. Cruising down the Autobahn in a BMW (for real!) and Skyping us from a different hotel lobby every night. (He can never seem to get good wi-fi reception in his room.) We love using Skype video and making all kinds of silly faces while he sits in a foyer somewhere pretending not to notice and we tell him just to be quiet for a little bit so we can overhear German conversations!

In just two short weeks MGJ and I will be off on an international adventure of our own. We're heading back to the Middle Kingdom for two weeks, and I'm more excited and emotional than I thought I'd be. I Skyped my Aussie friend in QD, who blames her Scottish heritiage on why she's not really a hugger, and confessed my emotionalness. I think I had her thinking she'll have an emotional wreck on her hands ... and it's not that at all. It's just than when we finally finalized it, and I began booking hostels and nailing down our itineary, the wonderful richness of it all hit me.

We've also got tickets booked to Boston for late April. Which should be great, warm spring weather. We'll do the Freedom Trail and investigate the sites the girlies are learning about in their history texts, and get to spend time with our Boston besties!

And then there's Vancouver this summer ...

Sometime mid-Winter I panicked that we were too stationary, to grounded, to (gasp) repatriated. I scoured cheap tickets and thought longingly of friends. It didn't take much convincing on my part to get Mr J on board to. And, I think we are reliving for the next few months anyway, what it feels like to live partially packed.

And, for the record ... it feels wonderful!

Losing Face {again}

Last night Mr Johnson read an article on a number of projects The People's Republic of China is trying to push through/accomplish/finish before the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in what is now the PRC.

Of course, the British journal was highlighting the misses. The projects that had been rushed to meet a date, are not actually fully completed, or have failed completely. There was great risk in some of the projects. In others people have died.

In an attempt to gain face, the Chinese will probably end up losing some. (The ironic, Daoist ying and yang at play.)

The section that stood out to us was the project in our former home city of five years, Qingdao. QD recently "completed" the longest bridge in the world. Except, when they opened it earlier this summer, it might not have been fully lit, nor had all the safety measures in place.

(The bridge is over 26 miles long. Who would have thought safety measures where optional?)

Here's the paragraph on Qingdao:

In the northern city of Qingdao, engineers have resumed work on the world's longest sea bridge to fit it with the safety barriers and lighting that were not quite done when it was opened to the public, with some fanfare, ahead of the anniversary.

Here's a link to the entire article in The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8629905/Chinese-motorway-collapses-after-just-two-days.html

----------------------------

This morning a long-term expat in QD posted on Facebook another unrelated article also sure to be face-losing for China. It dealt with water contamination. The bottled water that must be used for drinking and cooking has been found in Beijing to be tainted. (Tap water in China is almost never potable).

The Taipei Times reported:

Random market inspections found bacteria colonies in the water, the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce said on its Web site, citing a joint study with the capital’s product quality bureau.

“In order to prevent these substandard products from entering the distribution chain, the product quality bureau has taken measures to halt sales,” the administration said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tests on one brand of bottled water — Yiqun — found that bacteria levels were 9,000 times above safety standards, while those in Tianxing Special Water were 560 times higher, a report in the state-run Beijing Times said.

The tests were carried out on large barrels of water and did not include the smaller bottles of water normally bought in supermarkets, the report said.

Drinking the tainted water could lead to bouts of diarrhea, dizziness and vomiting, it added.

Part of the problems stemmed from quality controls at factories, including the failure to clean and sterilize water pipes, and replace and disinfect filters, the paper said.

Full article at the following link:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2011/07/08/2003507723

Links from this blog on former food safety scandals, losing face and life in China:

A Sad Story

http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-york-times-ran-story-today-about.html

The Tai Tai's Musings on 'Face'

http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/2010/03/tai-tais-musings-on-face.html

Perspective

http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/2010/12/perspective.html

Money Talks

"You can't smoke in here!" I tell my cab driver incredulously.

He looks in the rear view mirror to see if this foreign tai tai is serious.

I glare back.

Serious as a heart attack my glower insists.

(As serious as lung cancer, emphysema, or COPD. As serious as the bronchial swelling, airway constricting asthma that plagues my eight-year-old, and is triggered by, among other things, cigarette smoke.)

He is visibly crestfallen as he notes the 88 seconds remaining on the red light. (Stop lights in China don't use yellow. Just countdown clocks of red and green, and still the process is messy at best.)

He gestures at the cabbie next to us. His cab void of patrons and his cigarette lit.

"If I was in his cab I wouldn't pay him." (And by QD law I wouldn't have to.)

He looks at me once more for confirmation. Which I am more than happy to give him.

"If you smoke I won't pay," I tell him bluntly. (My Mandarin is somehow most fluent when my stress level is raised.)

These are the magic words.

Slowly he slips the much desired nicotine into his chest pocket, and begins a long guttural cough/throat clearing. He slaps his lighter onto the dash.

For a moment I wonder if he'll retaliate with irrational driving. But the heaviness of the mid-day traffic would prevent this. Instead he takes the long way home. Running up the toll by 15 cents.

The 15 cents that were well worth a smoke-free ride.

The Tai Tai's musings on expats...

As my cyber friend Global Gal pointed out in her recent comment (see last post re: IKEA trip), there are at least two kinds of expatriates. She called them "Suitcase Expats" and "Shipment Expats."

Shipment Expats

We've been "Shipment Expats". Our company has been sending people to China for nearly 20 years, so they have run a well oiled machine. The company calls expats International Service Employees (ISEs), and their ISE compensation package is filled with words like: hardship location, cost of living index (and adjustments), R & R packages, international school tuition, private vehicles with drivers, home leaves and Look/See visits. The package has language to describe how shipping will take place, how to arrange long-term storage in your home country, and details on how to import your pets. There are relocation consultants, people available on the other end of the phone in your home country to answer questions, and often people in your host country to hold your hand. (Our proverbial hand holder is called the ISE coordinator... I eluded to her also in a previous post.)

Suitcase Expats

"Suitcase Expats" on the other hand usually come with far less support. Sometimes the term half-pat is used for people who come to work in a foreign country without the backing of fat companies with glamorous expat packages. One definition I found described half-pats this way:

A new name has been coined for foreigners living (/drifting) in China long term: “halfpat“. “Expat” on the other hand, according to this definition, means temporarily-relocated big-corporation type people… those people who never get into “the real china” and enjoy salary/benefit packages from their firms virtually identical to what they get at home.

... [Halfpats] are more stable and committed to China in the long-term and they have significant cultural, linguistic and market understanding.

… There are more than simply financial benefits to hiring halfpat staff. Perhaps the greatest advantage is their cultural understanding and language skills – which simply cannot be underestimated in a market like China. These two characteristics allow halfpats to hit the ground running and give them a sustainable advantage over traditional expat managers.

Probably the strongest advantage of halfpats is their weird ability to live in China and not get sick of it…

The overall stability and long-term commitment of halfpat staff is also superior to that of the average expat. In fact, many remain in China for a 5-10 year period which makes them less of a risk in terms of failing to complete their assignment. Its estimated that 60% of expats are unable to complete the duration of their assignments.

from Shenzhen News & Commentary

I love the line about the "weird ability to live in China" without becoming irritated by the experience! What I find interesting is that often the most successful expatriates are not the ones who come with all the perks. Sometimes the ones who show up only with simply the maximum amount of luggage (and layered in clothes to save suitcase room -- anyone else read this account in Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible?). These people are often teachers, missionaries, small business owners or just over-grown backpackers with a penchant to learn about other cultures. These people's success, in my mind, is derived from the fact they come because they want to be part of a different culture.

The problem many traditional expats (what Global Gal has dubbed "Shipment Expats") run into is that they come to a foreign country (say, again China) because its a good move career wise, financially, or ... especially in the present economy... there is no other viable options. They are not necessarily Sino crazy, or interested in learning about other cultures, or, for that matter picking up a second language.

The people with expat packages don't have to find and negotiate their own housing, pay their own rent or even do little things, say, try sticky hard-to-find Chinese deodorant (people in China by and large don't wear any underarm deodorant or antiperspirant; and most expats with shipments bring their own!); they don't need to learn the language to function, or even have to learn how to hail a cab. This is not to say that "Shipment Expats" don't do these things. But many times, they don't have to, especially if they don't want to.

So who is happier? Who is more successful? Which one leaves China feeling richer for their experience? Which type of expat gets the most out of their China/international adventure? I'm not sure. (Though I can wager a guess. Spoiler warning: halfpats stay longer.)

I know, personally, that it is important for our family to appreciate the gifts that come as a "Shipment Expat". We have enjoyed every moment of our travel opportunities. We appreciate a company willing to make our time here comfortable. I don't want to take them for granted. More importantly, I don't want to hide behind them and see China from inside the walls of an expat compound. There are certainly choices we need to make on our own. Active choices that effect our quality of life in so much as it enriches our months and years spent outside of the U.S. I can't imagine living in foreign culture and not seizing upon the gift of learning a new language (especially one 1/5 of the global population speaks!) I want to learn about the history of a country that is roughly 25 times longer than my own.

The above are just the laywoman's musings of a longish-term "Shipment Expat" ...

For articles on these issues consider:

Halfpats: the New Expatriate

Foreigners in China: What is a Halfpat?

on being strong....

It does not bode well with me to refrain from posting. Please be assured I've been thinking of things other than ironing boards and orange tables (Although... good news... I have found a buyer for our orange and white darling.... And, if you found that post a bit cynical, forgive me, and know that I pledge to be less caustic in future ones.)

I haven't posted of late because I simply haven't had the words I wanted to use. I'm not sure I do now even. I've been ruminating. Chewing the words over in my mind. Making efforts to digest their meaning.

(At least the collage of photos was lovely for you to look at ... those 16 of you who faithfully return day after day to our blog ... )

I'm presently processing our decision to stay in China, our announcement, and what it means for each member of our family. This week I've been thinking about what it means for me.

I had coffee with three wonderful women last week. Strong women... my favorite kind.

Its been ages since I've had three coffee klatsches in one week... and the timing was perfect. I could air my feelings and bare my soul over a cups of steaming coffee. And, as I listened, I heard sage advice and honest renderings from their hearts.

China is sometimes a tough place to be. It's hard on individuals, families, parents, children, and marriages.

We've been The Johnson's in China four years, and have just chosen to stay another two. Everything lined up on paper, in our minds, and in our hearts, but as the reality of 30 more months enveloped me, it was fitting to talk it out with my "lady friends". **

I chatted with one of my mei mei's this week too. Another strong chica in her own way. We talked about this strong streak, and how it effects our relationships. How it cements them, as long as the men in our lives know what they're up against.

I often use those words with Mr. Johnson. "You knew what you were getting into." Meaning when we tied the knot over a dozen years ago he knew he wasn't getting a mild mannered woman. He usually smirks in acknowledgement, and sometimes even admits he "mostly" knew.

This week I've had to call upon my toughness. I've had to be resolute. Because if I were a meeker woman, I might not be up for the extended time we just signed up for.

We recently heard a statistic about living China that we are certain is true:

The average failure rate for international expats is under 4%. That is: only four percent of people who chose to move, live and work abroad cannot complete their assignment and head back to their home country defeated. For China, that number catapults to 20%.

I can think of a host of reasons for this. I can think of the number of expats we've seen pack their bags and catch a flight home. We were at dinner a couple of Sundays ago with several other families after fellowship when this nugget came up in our conversation. I turned to Mr. Johnson, and high-fived him. We've made it into the 80% who make it in China. And I'm praying for the strength to stay there (and here... ) for two more years.

** My great aunt Helen, a strong woman in her own right, always liked to refer to her friends as "lady friends," and I like the ring of it! Aunt Helen also liked to put out marshmallows and a "little lunch" when we'd traipse to her farm on weekends. After a small amount of polite conversation, when she figured us kids had had enough, she would send my dad off to her cellar to retrieve a cardboard box of farm toys. My favorites were the horses. Horses made in a way lost to future generations eager for features and gadgets. Those magnificent animals, pulled from Great Aunt Helen's cellar, were regal sable-colored Stallions and sleek Arabians with long, sinewy plastic legs; hard, molded tails; and fine, strong facial features. Great Aunt Helen was not a gentle woman, more matter-of-fact... maybe even gruff... and certainly strong. But, she was also kind .... she had marshmallows and lady friends; and she knew when to pull out the box of tricks... all in all not someone bad to emulate.)