China Intersections

I’m a few years older than the People’s Republic of China, but hardly an infant compared to China’s vast history and culture.China and I have intersected at many points, and I want to tell you about a few of them.

When I was a child, China was the mysterious other world that missionaries talked about at church, showing pictures of people who looked different but were their friends.The missionaries were talking about, and working in, several Asian countries; but they were all China to me.

As I grew, I learned to distinguish separate countries in Asia, each with its own identity; but I saw that Chinese culture and language permeate the Far East.Later I could see a fuller exchange: the influences of neighboring countries and cultures on China―such as the impact of Buddhism from India and Islam from the Middle East and, later, McDonalds from the U.S.The tide changed again as the migration of Chinese people brought a richer cultural mix to all parts of the world.

People―individuals―have been an important part of my intersections with China.After meeting the people, the place grows in importance.

In the late 1960s in my hometown, my 4-year-old son became friends with a Chinese girl in nursery school, and her mother and I shared conversation and cooking.

I spent much of the 1970s in college and graduate school.During that time, I read a Chinese-American woman’s book, describing her feelings and reactions on visiting China for the first time.Seeing China through her eyes gave me a taste of Chinese life.

On the job in the 1980s, I became friends with a Chinese man from Hong Kong as we shared orientation and first projects together, and I met his wife-to-be, who was from Taiwan.They had met at college in Tennessee; he spoke Cantonese and she spoke Mandarin, so English was their common language at first.I participated in their wedding, and in celebrating the birth of their first child and, later, their U.S. citizenship.

It was because of this couple that I went to China for the first time in 1983.We planned that I would travel with them to China, visit their families in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and spend a week in the PRC.That plan didn’t work out, for several reasons, but the planning whetted my appetite to see China through my own eyes.With the help of National Geographic Society’s Journey into China, a book (published in 1976) of essays and photographs from all over China, I picked places I most wanted to see and found a tour that would take me to most of them (including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Shaanxi in the north, and Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangzhou in the south).The tour was blessed with a tour leader who was interested in the people and culture as well as the places, and it was an eye-opening experience.

Returning home, I wanted to keep learning about China, and I joined the US-China Peoples Friendship Association (USCPFA), whose goal is to promote friendship and understanding between the peoples of the U.S. and China.At my first Chinese New Year dinner, I sat next to a Chinese man who came from Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province.We became fast friends because I was the only American he knew who had been to Taiyuan, and because I was very interested in learning taiji, which he led in Nashville’s Centennial Park each Saturday morning.

On my second visit to China, in 1988, I visited my friend and his family in Taiyuan for a few days before joining a tour in Beijing.Ten years later, in 1998, I accompanied a delegation of American women judges to China (hosted by the All-China Women’s Federation) and Shanxi was on the itinerary as the site of a new women’s court.At my request, this friend graciously brought his family to the hotel to visit with the delegation while we were in Taiyuan.In 2007, I was in Taiyuan as our mayors signed an agreement to link Nashville and Taiyuan as sister cities, and my friend and his wife hosted a part of the delegation in their home for tea.They also showed hospitality to a young Nashville couple in Taiyuan while the husband played professional basketball on the provincial team.Our friendship and the sister city relationship have mutually benefited.

Also through USCPFA, I met a Chinese woman who was a leader in the Chinese student/scholar association at a Nashville-area university.I learned a little Chinese language in the community education class she taught―and could have learned more if I had studied outside class.Over our 20-year friendship, we have shared the art of dumpling-making and our perspectives on business, news, films, family, and other aspects of life.

In the mid-1990s, I retired from paid employment.As a USCPFA volunteer, I began to organize China tours, mostly through the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC, also called Youxie).Since 1999, I have developed and arranged more than 20 tours to China.Besides the benefit of seeing many places in China, I have had the joy of showing China to first-time travelers, connecting with people we meet, and of getting to know Youxie staff who travel with us.On the streets in China, I learned again and again that people can communicate with little or no common language―with smiles, nods, showing off babies, sharing photos, and taking photos together.The Chinese face no longer appears mysterious; it now looks familiar.

In 2009, as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, we also celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between China and the United States.Both events are important intersections for our two countries and for the world.May the friendship between our peoples and the connections between our countries grow from strength to strength.

The author is former national treasurer of the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association.