 Your say
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-27 07:52 Jettison clutter, simplify life
When blogger Woaizhongguo moved to Asia 12 years ago, all of his possessions were tightly contained in one suitcase. But the last time he moved, his trinkets topped off almost 700 boxes, he writes on his blog I love China (http://blog.friday-nite.com/). After reading an article on how to survive with only 100 items, Woaizhongguo was inspired to figure out exactly which 100 items he could live with and which of the other 1,000 items he could live without. "I must have about 50 shirts, 100 T-shirts, 20 pairs of jeans, 40 pairs of shoes, and hundreds of old magazines which is not in itself an issue, but I use probably 10 percent of them around 90 percent of the time," Woaizhongguo writes on the blog titled 100 Things. The question of what to get rid of is a tough one to tackle, but Woaizhongguo has made a list of five things he would definitely keep: His cat Tommy, his iPod Touch, his watch collection, his Apple iBook and his wireless router. Wishful eavesdroppings In the beginning of Sinosplice (www.sinosplice.com) blogger John's eight years in China, he couldn't speak Chinese. So he fondly assumed that conversations he heard going on around him were either about him, something he was doing, or exotically esoteric topics. It was not until he reached a proficient level of Chinese that he made a huge discovery. "These people weren't discussing me, kungfu, or even the mystic qualities of qi. They were just talking about daily life matters. Imagine that!" he writes on his blog titled False teeth. Ultimately he found that being able to understand day-to-day conversation in Chinese was less rewarding than he first thought. But every now and then he hears a conversation that catches his attention, like this exchange between two elderly Chinese men: Old Man 1: Ni de ya chi hen hao (Your teeth are great)! Old Man 2: Jia de (They're fake)! Old Man 1: Jia de (Fake)? Old Man 2: Jia de (Fake)! "Yes, senior Chinese men talk about elderly matters too!" John writes. It all begins somewhere "Every story starts with a question," blogs Nate of Expatacular (www.expatacular.com). He made this observation after taking a short vacation back to his UK home. Nate speaks of how friends and family are fascinated to hear about his adventures in China, but as it is such a huge topic, they are unsure of exactly where to start. Consequently, the initial questions Nate gets are general to the point of vague, such as "Is China really that different?". Nate's own journey to the Middle Kingdom and his ability to answer the question today first began some time ago when he started seriously thinking about his future. Where to go? What to do? After much thought, Nate decided he would try sending out job applications to anywhere he could think of, but mainly to China. Two days later he received a request for a telephone interview. The rest is history. (China Daily 06/27/2008 page19) |
