If I lived in China, I'd have some Chinese children

What follows is a rough chronicle of my love affair with China, 

partially in order to repudiate the claim that coming here was a complete whim.  

(Mother:  Yes, I am talking to you.)

1989 = I AM BORN.  (This has nothing to do with China.)

1995 = See Hook for the first time, and almost immediately develop a crush on Rufio (the mohawked, skateboarding Asian leader of the Lost Boys).  Doesn't help that The Goonies and the Indiana Jones movies also feature Asian sidekicks.  Data and ShortRound are pretty attractive to an impressionable young nerd.

1997 = Read Laurence Yep's Dragon of the Lost Sea three times in a row, then saw a special on PBS about Chinese women binding their feet.  The former was fantastic (still recommend that book);  the latter was horrifying, and resulted in nightmares for the next two years.

1998 = Mulan!  (who is, without a doubt, one of my favorite Disney heroines) 

1999 = Start collecting Nancy Drew books, and add The Mystery of the Fire Dragon.  This particular book contains a lot of random information about Chinese pottery and pearls, which results in my being an ass during my mothers forays into antique/junk shops.  ("This is obviously a fake!  Dragons weren't allowed to have five toes on pottery, except for... etc.)  Add to this my ire at Harry Potter finally developing a crush on a girl and it NOT BEING HERMIONE.  Damn you, Cho Chang.

2000 = Shanghai Noon and Rush Hour.  Watch them both so many times that my mother starts fretting about an obsession with Jackie Chan. 

2001 = TCM phase:  the (horribly stereotypical but oh-so-good) Charlie Chan and Bruce Lee movies, in addition to the musical Flower Drum Song.  Also, "Sagwa the Siamese Chinese Cat" on PBS (shut up).

2003 =  Read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck for class, and Amy Tan's books, most obviously The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife for fun.  Get introduced to The Last Emperor by one of the most awesome people in the world (RIP Jarrett) and fall in love with the soundtrack (arranged by Philip Glass). Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon appears on the Starz! channels, and I watch this obsessively (in addition to the film adaptation of Tan's JLC).

- Brief hiatus upon discovery of Jim Morrison, The Grateful Dead, and hippie culture -

2006 = YouTube (one of the founders is Chinese, the Back Dorm Boys, and KevJumba)

2007 =  Start realizing that many of my favorite bands have Chinese musicians (but no Asian frontmen, which sucks balls).  Chi Cheng (Deftones bassist), Kevin Tong (Bloc Party drummer), etc.  Additionally, one of my favorite professors at Rice (Nico Orlandi) uses the Chinese room concept as one of our final exam's essay questions (PHIL 103:  Philosophy of Cognitive Science).

2008 =  Everyone's learning Chinese!  And Joss Whedon says that we're going to unite with China in the not-too-distant future!  ("Firefly") 

2009 =  "Hey, Paige!  There's this scholarship thing to go to China!"  Oh, and Harry Shum, Jr.

2010 = Getting run over by bicycles, motorbikes, buses, cars, and people every time I step onto a road.  Being introduced to some of the most interesting (and some of the most exasperating) people in the world.  Getting sick daily.  Waiting ages for bureaucracy to untangle itself.  Being housed in substandard living conditions.  Teaching incredibly bright children.  Marveling at billboards depicting FEMALE astronauts.  Encountering a language that is balls hard to understand, and completely counter-intuitive to a native English speaker.  Learning humility.  Attempting moderation.  Loving every minute of it.  Never wanting to leave :)

<3s and stars,
Pajj