About

Have you ever had that feeling before? You are at the exact place where you should be at, talking to the exact people you should be talking to, and thinking about the exact thing you should be thinking at that very moment?

That was how I felt when I came up with the idea writing this blog “Ask a Chinese Girl” last night, and I realized this is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Growing up in China, having received education both in China and the US, and now working in New York, I have always imagined myself being the linkage between the east and the west, particularly China and the US. And it all came together last night.

This website is a working progress and I will need your precious input, advice, encouragement and even criticism. But I am very excited about what I am doing here, and welcome you to enjoy the journey with me—a journey to discover or re-discover the real China and real Chinese people.

A couple of things I want to clarify about this blog:

• I am not Asian American (or Chinese American) and I am not trying to represent Asian American people. I have many Asian American friends and I have no problem understanding or communicating with them. But we don’t necessarily share the same views on a lot of things and there’s a major difference between being raised up in China and being raised up in a western environment. However, in the US, Asian American seems to be perceived as someone who can perfectly represent REAL Chinese people and Chinese culture. I do not believe that is the case.

• I am native Chinese yet I don’t represent a traditional Chinese or a typical Chinese either. If you think about it, it will be impossible and almost wrong for me to still be a typical and completely original Chinese since I have lived in the US for 7 years, and if I haven’t adopted any western mentalities in my personality I would have to call myself “incapable of adapting to anything new”. I am not a cultural expert, and I have no intention to represent the entire Chinese population, and I believe chances are many people will not agree with what I have to say in this blog. However, I am aspired to open a window for you to peek into the culture, the history and the modern development in the Chinese society; and to paint a vivid picture of how these remains and changes may have shaped how the Chinese young generation think, function, and behave today.

• The US is an accommodating country and I have learned and experienced so much after I made my way here. However much of the media coverage is still quite misleading, which is to some extent understandable because the western world in the eyes of a typical Chinese would also be biased; and it seems to be only fair to experience the same in the US. But it is changing, and I am hoping to accelerate the change by providing not necessarily unbiased (which I probably cannot promise anyway) but a wholistic view. I think it’s reasonable to expect my writing to be somewhat biased given the fact I was born and raised up in China, but at the same time it is important to realize that I tend to represent a much more balanced view as I did step out of my own country and culture and have learned to look and challenge myself from a distance and with a critical eye.



• Finally, this is a blog aimed to re-create the joint and shared experience growing up in China (until at least middle/high school): the environment we were in and the education we received have profoundly shaped our own identify and our perceptions for people around us and the world as a whole. Thus, this blog is not only for anyone who isinterested in China, confused about China, scared about China, and intrigued by China yet don’t have too much access to the REAL China. This blog is also intended to provide a fun and inspiring linkage for any Chinese Americans (so called banana) or Chinese descendants elsewhere to trace back to their own identify and culture.

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If you are interested in my other writings both in English and Chinese, please refer to the below:

My Professional Blog

http://anadviceaday.wordpress.com/

My Chinese Blog:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/yewufeiyang

Thank you again for stopping by and hope you had fun. ^^