Kristin Bair O'Keeffe: Writer. Mom. Teacher. Traveler.

We Pause in the Regularly Schedule Programming for...A TRIP TO BORNEO

Whoop! Whoop!

Those of you who've been looking for the regularly scheduled blog entries (Travel Tuesday: Writing the Far-Flung Life, Women Rock Wednesday, etc.) and my normal musings on writing, China, life, etc., thanks for checking in.

But...right now I'm lying on the beach in Borneo (well, actually, right now I'm in my hotel room, but a few hours ago, I was on the beach, and in another hour or so, I'll be on the beach again. And, of course, with a two-year-old there is much "lying on the beach" going on...mostly I'm chasing Tully, digging in the sand, chasing Tully...get the picture. It's lovely.)

Last week we were in China suffering a case of "too much, too many" (too much noise, too many people, too much traffic, too much smog, too many ____). So before one of us (hubby or I) began to exhibit bad expat behavior, we did what it takes to love our second home (China) again...we got out. It's like that sometimes.

Nothing a week in Borneo won't cure. :)

Here's a peek at our current digs.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

The South China Sea.

Ooh, this is gooooddddd.

Who's ready for the beach?

Chinese New Year: The Lantern Festival at Yu Garden in Shanghai

One of my favorite things about Chinese New Year in Shanghai? The Lantern Festival which is (in my humble opinion) best celebrated at Yu Garden...lots of cool lanterns...a few cheesy lanterns...but gorgeous at night. (My daughter loved it!)

Check it out...

 

Mao. Right next-door? Obama.

 

 

 

Read carefully before you order: "Dumpling filled with ovary and digestive glands of a crab..."

 

It is the Year of the Tiger, you know.

Cool, huh?

Chinese New Year: Wulumuqi Road Prepares for the Roaring Tiger

Have you heard? The Year of the Tiger begins this Sunday, February 14, and here in China, we'll be ushering it in with gusto on Saturday the 13th.

With a bang and a bang and a bang, bang, bang. (in other words, with hours and hours of fireworks used to scare away the evil gods)

I've got my spring couplets (chunlian) hung on either side of our door, a door god (menshen) hung on the door to ward off evil and give a hearty welcome to the new year, and a red lantern setting in the living room. I even bought new red tiger placemats from IKEA. (Can't have too many tigers hanging around...nor too much red.)

This morning I took a walk around my Wulumuqi (pronounced oo-loo-moo-chee) Road neighborhood  to check out how preparations were going. Looking good...

The markets & carts are bustling today. Everyone's buying flowers, nuts, meats, fruits, and goodies. There's no mistaking it...the New Year's feast is a'coming.

Out with the old, in with the new. Out with the dirt, in with the clean. Folks in Shanghai are getting ready for a fresh start and that includes washing all the laundry before the new year. Bad luck out, good luck in. So clean your house, cut your hair, get new shoes, and do your laundry. All will show the gods you are ready for happiness, good health, and prosperity. (But once the new year is upon us, put those cleaning tools away. You don't want to sweep away the good luck!)

Have you washed your special red gutchies yet? What? No? Get busy then, because donning red undies on Chinese New Year is a must. Back in the day when the awful monster "Nian" came to destroy Chinese villages at the end of every year, folks figured out that he was afraid of three things: noise, sunshine, and yep, red. In modern China, everyone wears red undies during the New Year celebrations. Every little bit helps, right?

See what I mean?

Need to pick up a few last-minute lanterns, couplets, hongbao (red envelopes for gifts of money)? Here's your one-stop shop in my neighborhood.

Door gods & hongbao envelopes.

Fish are important during Chinese New Year. First, the Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for riches or abundance...and everyone wants to welcome riches and abundance into their homes, right? Of course. Thus the red fish. Folks also eat lots of fish during the new year celebrations because doing so will help wishes come true.

Speaking of fish...

And look, the fish seller himself...

Everyone around here gives and eats lots of oranges and tangerines during Chinese New Year. (My daughter has eaten 4.32 million of them in the past three weeks.) Why? Well, the Chinese words for gold and orange sound alike, and the word for tangerine sounds like the word for luck.

Bonus: If you can give oranges and tangerines with the leaves still attached, by all means do, because leaves symbolize longevity.

(Warning: Don’t give fruits in groups of four. In Chinese, the number 4 sounds like the word for death. 4 is an unlucky number in China, much like the number 13 back home.)

Don't forget your seeds & nuts...two more staples of Chinese New Year. Seeds for having many children and nuts for a long life.

And finally, East meets West. A New Year's party at the JZ Club. (Great jazz!)

More soon, my friends!

Gong xi fa cai!

Women Rock Wednesday: Sara Teasdale (American Poet)

When I was young--really young, like 11 or 12--I discovered a volume of Sara Teasdale's poetry at the Bethel Park Public Library. Gosh, I loved those poems...so much that I read them over and over and over again. Out loud, to myself, to the tree in the backyard, to my best friend. I even copied them by hand in my journal.

Teasdale was this cool woman & amazing poet who wrote all about love and longing, romance, kissing and moons, being misunderstood, girlhood, womanhood...all the right stuff for a middle-school girl hitting puberty.

At that point in my life, I already knew I was a writer so for a while Teasdale served as a guide, a guru, but mostly she was the first female poet I'd heard of who wasn't Emily Dickinson (though I loved her, too). I needed her...a woman poet who wasn't afraid to express herself.

"Feel!" she shouted in her quiet, 19th-century way.

One of my favorites?

Here ya go...

Advice to a Girl

No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed;
Lay that on your heart,
My young angry dear;
This truth, this hard and precious stone,
Lay it on your hot cheek,
Let it hide your tear.
Hold it like a crystal
When you are alone
And gaze in the depths of the icy stone.
Long, look long and you will be blessed:
No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed.

Travel Tuesday: Writing the Far-Flung Life (Chinese New Year: The World's Largest Human Migration)

What are we doing in China this week?

Writing?

Always.

Practicing our characters?

Heck no! We're getting ready for Chinese New Year...the national holiday when nearly every single person in China travels to her home province for the celebration of the lunar new year...yep, nearly every single person...which makes this holiday the world's largest human migration. (I'm going to head up to the train ticket office up my street tomorrow and take some photos...the line is crazy long!)

Even though the New Year doesn't officially begin until Saturday, February 14, folks have already started to leave Shanghai by the trainload. Believe it or not, something like 25.63 million passengers will leave or come to Shanghai this year by rail, plane, bus, or ship (Shanghai Daily). 

25.63 million people.

Want to join them? Maybe by train? Here...try this one. Looks comfy, huh? You know, for a cross-country trip in China.

 

Or maybe this train?

While you absorb those numbers and stare at those photos, let me remind you writers out there that holidays, festivals, and rituals are terrific fodder for articles, essays, and stories. If you're writing about a far-flung place, investigate.

Here in China, as we move closer and closer to the Year of the Tiger, I'll be sharing a good bit about the celebrations, rituals, and traditions go along with it.

But right now, I'm going to go hang my New Year decorations (including a tiger on the door). Photos to come.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Far-flung writers: Where are you living? Traveling to? What rituals, celebrations, traditions take your attention?

Project Kindle, Post #6 (The FINAL Episode)

This...is...it. 

Do I love my Kindle? Can I read books on my Kindle?

Watch and see.

Women Rock Wednesday: Kathryn Stockett, Author of "THE HELP" (Have you read it?)

This week, author Kathryn Stockett rocks my Wednesday.

According to my Kindle, I'm 29% of the way through Stockett's first novel THE HELP. Yes, yes, I know it's dangerous to tout a novel too loudly before being 100% of the way through, but even if the rest of THE HELP turns out to be the worst drivel ever written (and of course, it wont'),this book deserves to be touted.

Kathryn Stockett has wowed me...with a story that winds tighter and tighter the further I read, with three female characters who make me cringe and laugh out loud at the same time, and with language and images that stick with me.

Listen to this...

"The houses all be small, but every front yard's different--some scrubby and grassless like a baldheaded old man." (Kindle location 363-64)

"There are ten rooms downstairs and one with a stuffed grizzly bear that looks like it ate up the last maid and is biding for the next one." (Kindle location 679-80)

"If I'd played Mammy [in "Gone With the Wind"], I'd of told Scarlet to stick those green draperies up her white little pooper." (Kindle location 1022-23)

See what I mean? I'm laughing out loud all over again just typing up the quotes.

Have you read THE HELP? What do you think?

Travel Tuesday: Writing the Far-Flung Life (Me + New Place = ?)

Okay, all you far-flung writers, need a jumping off point for a new essay? Here goes:

When you:

• are transplanted in a new country
• are launched out of your comfort zone
• are separated from those you love by expansive oceans and thousands of miles
• are incapable of communicating with those around you because you don't speak the language
• spend minutes/hours/days pantomiming even the simplest nouns (and feel like a cross between an intrepid explorer and a complete ass every time you do it)
• struggle to interpret new cultural cues

you inevitably ask the question...

Me + (New Place) = ?

You can't help it. It's human nature. We're driven to define ourselves in relation to our surroundings. Especially those of us who are writers.

The first time I asked myself this question was back in October 2006, about six months after I'd moved from the United States to Shanghai, China. I was back in the U.S. on my first trip home and was feeling completely overwhelmed by the number of choices I faced in the cereal aisle at the grocery store and a number of other things. I wrote about it here (at my old blog).

Since then, I've mulled over this very question again and again...verbally and in my head...but I haven't yet (re-)tackled it on the page. It's time...I feel it coming. The distillation of who I am in China.

And you? Have you tackled this question in your writing?

Me + (New Place) = ?

If not, give it a shot. It has all the makings of a great essay.

If so, what was your answer?