Blues?

[JamesnYuHong]

Anyone ever get the post-China blues? The street culture in China is so lively. You can walk down the street and buy fruits, vegetables, meat on a stick, junk trinkets. Family and social networks are so strong, like I guess they once were here, though I'm too young to remember. Life just plays out as it will over there ... sometimes here everything seems so sanitized ... people hole up with their DVD players in their suburban houses, and if they need something they get in their SUV and head to Target ... you might have dinner with some friends, but it has to be planned well in advance so as not to conflict with anybody's soccer games ...

I like where I live, and I love my job. I just sometimes wish America could recapture the vibrancy that China has retained. If we started building all developments as mixed-use, stopped driving and stopped building big-box stores, I think that would help.

How have your wives adjusted to things over here in that respect? What do they think of suburban life, if that's where you live?

Edited October 6, 2005 by JamesnYuHong (see edit history)

[Mick]

I understand what you mean about missing some of the vibrancy of the street life in China. I lived over there with my wife for quite a few years and, for the most part, enjoyed it very much.

 

Upon our coming to the states two and a half years ago, I think I had a harder time readjusting to American life than she did adjusting for the first time. I was homesick for China for at least six months. Still, I am now glad we are here and that things are going well.

 

We don't live in the suburbs. In fact, we live just outside a very, very small town. Li has adjusted well and likes the natural beauty that surrounds where we live. She works in a larger city about 20 miles south of here. My job as a journalist carries me all over the place. So I guess we experience a wide variety of living situations.

 

There is a possibility that Li's job will necessitate us returning to China for two to three years at some point in the future. If need be, we can easily do that and, in a way, I would look forward to it.

 

I think we can live well in either country, but yes, I do get the China blues sometimes, but not as much as I did shortly after our return.

[david_dawei]

How about feeling 'purple' ...

[sylinchinastill]

I miss the nightlife in China. Here you can go to bars and stuff, but where besides China can you get a multi-course meal at 3 in the morning? We live in Memphis and I sometimes think it isn't China vs the US- but that I need to live in a cooler city in the US.

[JamesnYuHong]

I miss the nightlife in China. Here you can go to bars and stuff, but where besides China can you get a multi-course meal at 3 in the morning? We live in Memphis and I sometimes think it isn't China vs the US- but that I need to live in a cooler city in the US.

158868[/snapback]

Isn't Memphis supposed to be pretty cool?

[ptcrusier333rph]

I think what I miss is the simple life and accepting you at who you are. I enjoy the feeling of being accepted as a artist, not as an american. In many ways the feeling that I felt was what we had here in the 1900s to 1930s when family was important and you can survive without a paycheck.

[Yuanyang]

Well said Robert; the strong family ties - the Chinese live it the way we talk about it - , seeing people walking, yourself walking, making a simple meal feel like a holiday celebration... these are the things I really love when in China.

 

Once back here I'm very blue, but I think that's because my wife isn't with me as much as anything.

[Joanne]

I will miss our housekeeper (or nanny, but neither name shows exactly the nature of her work). She helped out a lot with the housework and taking care of our daughter so that I can continue my fulltime work. On the other hand, I am also looking forward to being a genuine housewife and spend more time with my husband and daughter.

[bnolsen]

So far I've spent only 2 weeks in Shanghai, 1 week a year ago and last week I was there.

 

Big plusses I saw there:

 

- The culture is more modest. In the US it seems sex is constantly thrown in your face, you can't get away from it. Billboards advertisements, young girls wearing overly provacative clothing. And I live in middle America even.

- Ability to walk everywhere. It's good to be able to easily get exercise without having to actually plan for it like I have to here in the US. The automobile culture is nice but probably taken too far.

 

Big minuses:

 

- Both of us being christian, well there's always that feeling of knowing that the religious freedom that should be there isn't.

- Can't seem to get away from people. That could partially be because I've been there during holiday.

- Too many dense, tall buildings. Coming back the first thing I notice is how the tallest things here are trees, not buildings.

 

Of course I live in Denver which is very spread out. Almost everywhere the trees are the tallest feature in the landscape and it's very easy to drive 30 mins and be able to hike without running into other people at all. In fact my friends and I tend to be even somewhat offended if we do see other people on the trails.

[Dennis143]

Many friends and aquantances whom I have known and met over the years and are LA transplants have voiced the same sentiment, re family bonds in their homeland vs the US.

 

The US, by nature, is a migratory people. Along with this, we are and always have been a melting pot of ever-changing cultural diversity. So many of us have moved away from where we grew up. We visit our parents on holidays and it is rare when many of us still live where the roots of our grandparents and their grandparents were planted.

 

Here in LA, I see it around me everywhere. The latinos will gather in the parks every weekend with not just their immediate families, but their extended ones. Family bonds and ties seem to be the foundation that has been lost by many of us Americans who seek out lives for our individual goals and not necessarily for the common good of our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters....

Edited October 12, 2005 by Dennis143 (see edit history)