Mick

That splains a lot. Mick, I believe that you are either currently, or have in the past been paid to write. Writers from the professional community can echo in unison that writing is not only a learned skill, but something that most Americans lack. I'm not talking the kind of writing that people do from Texting, sending email, or posting on Web sites like this, but the kind of writing needed to communicate information to a specific audience about a particular topic. During the course of my career, I've noticed that vast numbers of people holding advanced degrees from major universities, fail to use proper grammar and syntax in their writing. You can find frequent shifting of voice in a single paragraph. It's not hard to spot writing that wasn't created or carefully edited by an experienced author, as it's easy to spot subtle variations in writing style. It's sad to see in this day and age where it's so easy to find information on the internet, and then copy and paste it right into a document, without even quoting the author or source as you suggested by footnoting. Yes, paid both currently as well as in the past. For writers, musicians, artists and the like, plagerism is like theft, pure and simple. You might as well stick your hand in my pocket and take whatever is there. However, this is not a commonly held belief in China, at least not when I was over there. Sure, they would pay lip service to intellectual property rights, but that's all it was - lip service. I could go into more detail on this, but I don't want to get on a soap box here and it is not my intention to hijack this thread. In relation to the daugher in question at the beginning of the thread, perhaps she doesn't comprehend that plagerism is a bad thing. I am pretty sure her teachers in China didn't stress this as an issue. I could be wrong, but chances are it was rarely discussed.

I taught in a major Chinese University for five years and can say without a doubt that not only is plagerism condoned, it is encouraged. Students, except in classes taught by western teachers, were not required to footnote anything. In fact, each year there was a major competition in the English Department among the seniors. Each is required to write a graduation paper. I was absolutely mortified when I discovered how these things were judged. Students were discouraged from using their own words. In fact, they were penalized for doing so. The "ideal" paper was one that was patched together from several sources, word for word, from whatever website the info came from. No footnotes were required. Intellectual property is a foreign concept and certainly not a part of the general cultural environment. Two years that I was there, my students won the competition. However, they did not follow any of my guidelines. Instead, they copied everything, verbatim, from books and web sites. I read the winning papers and was mortified. One year, in fact, two guys turned in the exact same paper, all plagerized. Both won third prize. I asked one of my professor friends how it was that two papers, identical to one another, was not considered suspect. He told me that they understood that one of the two cheated, but to call them on it would cause them a loss of face in front of their peers. I then asked why they won third prize. I was told it was a "well researched paper" and showed that whichever student did the original copying from the web site, understood the guidelines, which stated that only "exact extended quotations from recognized scholars in the field would be acceptable." Students were also told to keep their personal interpretations to a minimum.

Hilarious. By the way, did it ever get there? Of course not....I ended up wiring money to a friend in the States who bought and mailed a Christmas present for me. The one that went out from China "the regular way" was never seen again, at least by me.

Any of you old timers remember my adventures at the post office, trying to send a Christmas package that eventually went out "the regular way?"

Incredible! A true testament to the power and capability of the human spirit. Where there is life, there is hope..... Thanks, Carl

Glad to hear everything worked out ok in the end. It always amazes me how different things are, depending on where the interview takes place and who the IO happens to be. There have been quite a few here on the board that didn't even have to go through an interview for AOS. In our case, we had an interview (in Memphis) but it was a breeze. Where did your interview take place?

Down in the part of China where I lived, you didn't have to bother with bushes. Guys just whipped it out and let fly right in the open. It was common on longer bus rides for the driver to stop and let the guys on board go out to take a leak. Most of them just stood right outside the bus and made their contributions to the Yellow River.

During my second year in China, Li and I were apart for about eight months as she finished out her work in Anhui, before moving down to Guangdong, where I had moved. Of course, she came to visit about four times during that period of time. Bless her.....she actually had one of our friends, a female in her mid-20's "look after me" while she was gone. She ended up spending so much time with me that some folks thought she was my secretary, and others thought she was my lover. In fact, the wife of one of our friends took it upon herself to tell Li I had taken a young lover while she was gone. When Li asked who it was, the woman told her and Li laughed for days about it. And no, although we spent much time together, nothing of a carnal nature took place. Jesse, you should be able to handle a month just fine. I see you have enough beer and I know for a fact they have Cheetos, or a pirate rip off of same, over there. Why not ask you lady to find you a young girl in her 20's to take care of you. I'll bet it still is a bit cold in Nanjing.

Glad to hear she now has the passport. I am also glad so many people revealed how in their cases it was easy to obtain. Believe me, this is a major change from how it used to be. As I mentioned, back in 2000 we had to grease palms at every step of the way and, in the case of the head of her work unit, had to pay him off twice and he still didn't want to give his permission. Back then, the boss had to sign off on it, at least in Anhui Province, which by all accounts is very conservative. Lest you think our case was unusual, back in those days it was common. I knew another couple, they were in Jiangsu, that ended up spending in excess of 18,000 RMB, just to get a passport. The passport fee itself was around 150 RMB. The remainder of the 18K was in corruption fees. We also had to pay a fairly stiff "fee" to obtain a police report, well in excess of 5,000 RMB. Count you blessings my friends. Things have changed. In our case, after we finally got through dealing with the Chinese side of things, we then had to deal with the U.S. side of things. Filed for visa in Sept. 2001, picked it up in spring of 2003. The original Black Hole.

Li and I are both Ox, so it is supposed to be bad for both of us, but I am an eternal optimist. Rather than one bad year for me plus one bad year for her equaling double bad; I say one bad year minus one bad year equals a great year, or at worst, neutral.

Theoretically it should not be too much of a problem, but like many things in China, theory and practice are not always the same. For Li, it was not such an easy task. She had to have approval by several levels of bureaucrats, officials, etc and we had to pay bribes at every step of the way. Keep in mind, however, that this was way back in 2000 and things have changed a lot since then. As for her boss, it should not be a problem unless, of course, he wants it to be a problem. Like I said, I think things may be a lot smoother now. Back in the old days, it was an expensive proposition due to the palm greasing.

We did not plan to have children, but hey, things don't always follow plans. We were together in China for five years, then came to States in 2003. Li got pregnant in August 2003 and Salina was born in May 2004. I was 55 at the time of her birth. I can say that I am so glad things didn't go according to plan. I love this little girl more than life itself. What a blessing she has been.

I taught in China for five plus years. I taught English and also taught Journalism to Journalism majors, as that is my area of education. I taught in Universities, two of them. My experience, as someone else said, is that it depends on your school how good of a situation you might have. Salary is important, but not the biggest issue. For example, my first year there the school I taught at locked me in behind a big gate at 11 PM. And my wife could not sleep with me. (she is, of course, Chinese). We moved at the end of the first year. No surprise there. The next four years were a dream. It was great. Again, it all depends on the school and also on your FAO (Foreign Affairs Officer). If you have a good one, life is great. If not, it is hell. Dave's ESL Cafe is a good site, spend time there. I would also suggest going to one of the more advanced provinces, at least to start. My first year I was in Anhui, which is great in many ways, but quite conservative in others. They took a bit of a dim view of our interracial marriage.

I really wish I did make it all up. We had to pay each time. As for Beale Street and the BBQ....two of my favorite things about Memphis. And a very old timer Candle member, Eric, who was here from the start, used to like Memphis because he could buy all the velvet Elvis paintings he could afford. I guess there is no accounting for taste, and Eric was, after all, a one-armed Frenchman scuba diver.

Li and I were living in Guangdong when SARS broke out and it was spreading like crazy. Making matters worse was the fact that we couldn't get out because Li's visa, although approved, was still stuck in the Black Hole. I remember talking to the head of the Visa Unit about all of this when Owen Krout and I had our infamous meeting with the powers that be at GZ during the height of the SARS scare. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but Owen and his wife reveived their visa three weeks later and ours came through the following week. SARS was pretty scary to say the least. The price of White Vinegar shot through the roof. A jug that normally cost 2 rmb was going for 400-500. Folks would burn the vinegar to kill germs in the air.

You mean you're supposed to wash them?

I am an Ox and Li is also an Ox. In the Western system, we are both Taurus. So I guess we have the Ox, Cow, Bull thing pretty well covered. I have my red undies ready for New Years and I bought Li and bright red thong for Christmas. She looks absolutely yummy in it.

I can vouch for that! Two interviews, both in Memphis which is five hours from where we live, plus four appointments for fingerprints in Nashville (two hour drive). All total, Li was fingerprinted seven times.

Congrats Charles!!!! That is a wonderful feeling when you finally have that 10 year card in hand, isn't it? I know Li and I went through hell and back at every step in the process and we just felt so blessed when we finally got there. May God bless you, your beautiful wife, and your future together.

Madison is getting higher and higher. One thing that may have an effect on land prices around here has to do with BRAC - Base Realignment and Closings. Many of the DoD military bases are either being closed or shipped to Huntsville. Projections are anywhere from 3500 to 5500 new jobs here in the next three years, with many folks already starting to transfer to this area. Housing starts are flourishing in the outlying areas, particularly in West Madison, near County Line Road, the place Lauren mentioned. If you want woodsy, head out of town a little more. Harvest is still fairly rural in places and it is near town, as is a small community north of Huntsville called Toney. Where I live is in a small town named Ardmore, which is somewhat unique. Although the entire town has a population of about 5,000, we have two states and four counties within the city limits. The Alabama/Tennessee state line runs right on the yellow line on Main Street. Businesses on one side of the street are in TN and on the other side in AL. You can well imagine what goes on here the third Saturday in October every year. That's the date of the annual Alabama/Tennessee football game. I am surprised there isn't more gunplay. We have lots of woods up here if you like that sort of thing. In fact, my back yard borders two fields, one with cows and donkeys and the other with horses. Very common to see deer in our yard eating clover and raiding the garden early in the morning. We are 23 miles north of Huntsville; 80 miles south of Nashville. In Tennessee, two other cities besides Nashville are worth checking into - Chattanooga and Memphis. Chattanooga is a beautiful city. The entire downtown area has been reworked and is now a major tourist area. The Tennessee River runs right through downtown. Memphis is fine too, and much larger than Huntsville or Chattanooga. Lots of Chinese over there.

The Chinese population is mostly spread out, highly educated, and affluent. There are many Chinese students as well at UAH (University of Alabama Huntsville). As for Acupuncture, there are a number of practitioners here, but few are Chinese. Like most cities, there is a slew of Chinese eateries, several of them very good and one or two that are authentic. Of course there are many Chinese working in the restaurants, almost all from Fujian. There are at least two fairly large Chinese Churches in town. Also, there is a city just west of here that Lauren referred to - Madison. It is conjoint with Hunstville and somewhat trendy with higher property prices. It is nice but traffic out that way can be a bit brutal. I don't know of any Chinese shops per se, there are several good Asian foodstores. The best one is down on South Parkway. We go down there about once a month or so, but it is on the south end of town and quite a hike from where we live in Tennessee. The closest "Chinatown" I am aware of is probably Atlanta, about four hours away. Also quite a large Chinese population in Birmingham, 100 miles to the south.

Tennessee also has the same program, funded through the Lotto. Pretty much the same deal. Need a B average and the state is loaded with colleges and universities that are state schools. Nashville is not a bad place to live. Lots of Chinese there. I live about 80 miles south of Music City. Of course, Trigg is much closer but then, he has a rubber goat.

What she said! Huntsville is a great city to live in - not too small, not too big. Lots of Chinese culture, several top notch universities, climate not too bad, unless you can't deal with humidity. I was born there and now live across the border in Tennessee, about 23 miles north of Huntsville. The city is very cosmopolitan, unlike the rest of Alabama. This is due in large part to the space industry. The Saturn rockets that put up the moon shots were built here, as was most of the Space Shuttle. NASA has a major presence in Huntsville. Crime is not too bad, and cost of living is quite low compared to other places. It is unlike the rest of Alabama. I often used to compare Huntsville to West Berlin. An oasis of sorts in a sea of Red. In the case of Berlin, red as in Commies....In the case of Huntsville, red as in ....well....necks.

Great news, indeed. Congrats. BTW: What city are you living in?

Below is a copy of an article I initially published in a magazine on holistic spirituality last year and later put up on one of my blogs. It talks a bit about the interface of Buddhism and Christianity. I firmly believe that, even though there are marked differences between the two, the meeting of these two great faith traditions will be of great value in the years ahead. Interspirituality: Buddhist/Christian Dialogue As I have mentioned in other articles on this blog, the 21st Century will be, and already is to some extent, characterized by increasing interspiritual dialogue. Catholic writer Wayne Teasdale has coined the term "Interspirituality" to describe this meeting of the world's major religious traditions. One of the most significant encounters between faith traditions is the one beginning to occur between Buddhism and Christianity. British historian Arnold Toynbee, one of the greatest minds in his field of study, has said that when history looks back on the 20th Century, it will not be atomic power or the personal computer that will be seen as the most significant event. According to Toynbee, the most vital occurrence of the century just ended will be the meeting of Christianity and Buddhism. If you reflect on Toynbee's remark for a moment, you will see that he must have had something incredible in mind when he uttered those words. Certainly, the computer and atomic power have had major impact. At least as of now, we must still ponder what the significance of the exposure of Christianity to Buddhism and vice versa might be. Buddhism is a remarkable tradition and one that most Christians are fairly ignorant about. Many sincere believers think that Buddhists are godless atheists who sit around mumbling and bowing before idols. Not only is this a highly false view of Buddhism, it is also highly insulting. Buddhism has produced some of the greatest minds in the history of humankind and continues to do so. I have studied Buddhism deeply for over 30 years and can say without reservation that I consider this vital tradition one in which all Christians could learn a great deal about love, compassion, and overcoming self-centeredness - all consistent, by the way, with the central teachings of Jesus. Whenever I post something of an interspiritual nature two things happen. First, I get nasty comments from Christians who feel that I am at best an apostate or, worse still, a brother of Beelzebub himself. I would ask that if you are considering leaving such a comment, please refrain. I say without reservation that I do not hold to the notion of Christian exclusiveness and I am well aware of all of the scriptures used to support such a view. "No one comes to the Father except through me," and on and on, and etc. I don't think Christ was referring here to himself as a person, but as a process. I don't want to get sidetracked into that discussion here. The second thing that happens is the number of views on my blog dips for a few days as readers who don't agree with my take on other religions feel that somehow I might pollute their minds. If this is how it has to be, well, so be it. I think the issue of religious tolerance is highly important in our age and if some believers do not think their faith is strong enough to handle exposure to another tradition, I can do little to change that. With that said, let's move on. Fanaticism is rightly identified as one of the curses of our world. Fanatic followers of any sort of doctrine, political, religious, economic, or sociological, can create chaos and turmoil in our world and often do exactly that. Even the most superficial survey of history will bear this out. Whenever a group feels that they possess the one and only truth, the result is they want it to be your truth as well. This has especially been the case in the Islamic and Christian traditions, although religious zealots can be found in just about all traditions. One of the most attractive characteristics of Buddhism is its lack of dogmatic insistence on its validity. From the beginning Buddha stressed the importance of tolerance of other traditions and also the necessity of verifying principles for oneself. His primary advice could be summed up like this: Try it and see. Another reason Buddhism has been less prone to religious intolerance and violence centers on the reality that Buddha never claimed to be a God or god, however you might want to define that term. Buddha only claimed to be a man, albeit an ¡°awakened¡± man. Through the enlightening revelations that came to him while meditating under the famed Bodhi tree, Siddhartha realized that we are all part of an interconnected web of existence and to do violence to or exert undue pressure on any one aspect of this web would have deleterious effects on every other part. All of these principles cited above are reasons why Buddhism is such a tolerant faith as a whole. One final aspect to consider is the place scripture holds in the Buddhist tradition. Although the various sutras (suttas) are considered sacred writings, they are not to be considered infallible or above questioning. Once again, Buddha stressed the need for seekers to verify the veracity of his teachings, which later became scripture, for themselves. Consider the following words of Buddha recorded in the Kalama Sutra: Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything merely on authority of your teachers and elders. But when, after observation and analysis, you find anything that agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. How refreshing when you think about it. In contrast, ¡°People of the Book,¡± a term often used to describe Jews, Christians, Muslims, and to some extent, members of the Baha¡¯i¡¯ faith, have a view opposite of Buddhists. The Torah, the Bible, the Koran, and the sacred writing of Bahaullah are seen as ¡°the Word of God.¡± In the Christian tradition, a significant number of denominations require its members to adhere to the view that the Bible is not only the literal Word of God, but that it is also infallible and without error. In marked contrast, Viet Namese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, has developed 14 Mindfulness Trainings for his world wide community known as the Order of Interbeing. If one studies these 14 points, he or she comes away with a positive impression of what it means to be a truly spiritual person. The first of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings is pertinent to the subject at hand: Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. The ¡°First Foundation of Mindfulness¡± reminds us that no teaching, even those of the Buddha, is perfect. With this in mind, along with Thich Nhat Hahn¡¯s belief in pacifism, it is easy to see why the Order of Interbeing does not condone fighting, killing, or the willingness to die for a philosophy. Given the age in which we live, not only is such a view as espoused by the First Foundation refreshing, it may, indeed, be a necessity. I know that I have learned much from my study of Buddhism and, if the truth be known, it was through the study and practice of Buddhism that I finally came to appreciate the Christian tradition I had grown up in. As we move forward during this exciting and challenging century it is imperative that we fully understand that we are part of a global community. Economics, politics, religion, culture, and all other aspects of humanity's collective existence are part and parcel of a larger reality - a reality in which all the parts are interconnected and interdependent. Now more than ever, one part cannot be affected in isolation from the other parts. This is not some arcane, cosmic theory; it is a fundamental fact. The crude but accurate analogy I often use is raisin Jell-O - yes, you read that right - raisin Jell-O. If you take your index finger and thump one of the raisins, all of them move. If we indeed live in such a global collective it stands to reason that we should do all that we can to understand each other, including our various religious worldviews. Any other approach is both myopic and theologically incestuous.