Explanation
As suggested by a friend, I have decided to begin a weblog on my experiences leading up to and during my visit to China. I'm not sure what form this blog will eventually take, but for the moment I am treating it as an online journal for my own personal history. While I am therefore not writing it for an audience per se, I would love to receive any comments (please email elliottandlara@gmail.com) from those who are so unfortunate as to stumble upon this blog.
The Story Begins
I'm not sure exactly when the "china bug" actually bit me, but the infection was well under way by my first semester home from the mission. I had had some deeply spiritual (and some amusing) encounters with various families and students from mainland China while serving in Toronto, but it wasn't until Dr. Murdock's civilization class that the first thoughts of actually going there materialized.
As the idea began to formulate, I went on to take a course that focused on 20th century China. I learned about civil wars within China during the warlord period larger in magnitude than WWI in Europe. I learned about the Long March, a journey that the early Communists took that exceeds the Mormon Pioneer Trek in length and (arguably) difficulty (traveling on foot, they were chased by Kaishek's army the entire way to Northern China). I learned about the Great Leap Forward, a man-made famine in the earlier part of Mao's reign that killed an estimated 30 million people. I studied the Cultural Revolution, where the youth nearly brought the country into total anarchy. Yet in studying this difficult period of Chinese history, I felt a sense of resilience and optimism in the memoirs I read and the individuals I met--a feeling that, like the history itself, I was immediately drawn to.
I remember one day looking up from my studies and asking aloud to a friend: "Why didn't we learn any of this in high school? Why have they been keeping this from us?" I reflected with discontent on the homogeny of history subjects during my high school days; all seemed to have been focused on the US or Europe. To clarify, I am certainly not anti-American or anti-American history. But following this study came a disillusionment with Western ethnocentricism and a diminishing interest in Western history from a Western perspective.
I'm digressing, but I do find it interesting how a topic can be rather boring and unengaging until you make (or realize you have) some connection to it. How many people honestly revel in researching random genealogy? (I'm sure I will be corrected on that.) Just two years ago, I felt that chemistry was a subject to be avoided at all costs. But then I took a interdisciplinary "colloquial science" course that (forgive the cliche) changed my life and my thinking; it connected the fields of science to each other, making chemistry suddenly relevant and fascinating. Gradually I realized that I was getting hooked--and that a course that was supposed to finish all my requirements in science was actually leading me to a science major (and many more chemistry classes).
I suppose China was the same way. I took a civilization course from a professor that connected the nations and histories and perspectives together, helping me discover that China was also relevant and fascinating. This, I believe, is the greatest gift that college provides: a chance to connect. And once that connection is made, learning will take the rest of our lives.
So that is my motive. To learn and experience. I'm still not sure where China fits with my future--unless the wife hunt proves successful (just kidding). I'm really not sure if I can have a career in science and maintain anything more than an private love for China. Hopefully this trip will shed some light on my dilemma. But if not--I'm still excited for my little adventure to the Orient.
Listening Phoenix - Everything is Everything; Nothing Ever Stays - In the meaning of a letter
Reading The Screwtape Letters; A Daughter of Han