Irrelevancies

Since I am adopting from China, I spend a considerable amount of time reading other families' blogs and adoption-related articles. I noticed that many families and authors refer to a red thread and lady bugs in their writing. I began to see lady bugs on many products related to Chinese adoption. "What does string and an insect have to do with Chinese adoption?", I asked myself. Unsure of what I may find, I started a quest to find out. I began by reading books and magazine articles. I perused adoption websites. I talked to various adoption professionals and families who had adopted from China. "What's the deal with the red thread and lady bugs?" I would ask them. Here are their answers. The red… [more]

This piece of Chinese public art (or "art") is headlined "the dumbest thing I have seen", but really it's not. Inexplicable, yes. Dumb, I'm not so sure about. Something to look out for when you're using the public toilets in Chongqing…

• Going to China, but running around in a panic trying to figure out how and what and where? Journeywoman.com's "GirlTalk China" presents a big list of tips for women traveling in China. Topics include: what to pack (and how), where to shop, how much things are worth, the etiquette of dinner invitations, and a whole bunch of other stuff. As the name implies, it's all geared toward woman travelers, but men can learn a thing or two, too. There are also some sweet anecdotes (I like the "Will my adopted granddaughter remember?" series.)
• Having trouble mastering Mandarin? According to a new study, learning Chinese is in the genes. Well, sort of. Dan Dediu and Robert Ladd of Edinburgh University found a

Because we within the adoption community (inasmuch as there is such a thing as one adoption community) can't get enough of celebrity adopters either (not least because whatever they do in public changes the way people look at us in the supermarket checkout lines), it's probably time for a check-in. Madonna is insisting that no, really, we filed paperwork and everything to adopt her child from Malawi, a country that doesn't actually have a formal international adoption program. The process started long before everyone heard about it because, hey, it's private family stuff and putting forms in envelopes isn't quite as photogenic as… [more]

OK, so China just tightened its restrictions on would-be adoptive parents, many of whom are now looking elsewhere, including that vast nation along China's northern border. So... What's with the shutdown of adoptions from Russia? Strange coincidence? Something unexpected to do with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption? Putin finally declaring himself dictator and closing the borders? What? What? Somebody tell me something…

This has nothing to do with anything on here, really, except in a general social awareness way, but sometimes it's actually embarrassing to be Floridian. Perhaps the city fathers of Orlando can next erect signs on all the roads leading into town: "Homeless, don't let the sun set on you here." Sheesh. Of course, the Canadian counterpoint might be going a bit too far…

Are you afraid of Chinese grannies? Respect their power

So, as you may or may not know, I work in a rather odd newsroom while I'm not doing this thing on here. While writing that previous entry on the hexagram heng and how it represents an unusual sort of marriage, I get assigned to write two stories based on news clips from China -- one on this married couple and one on this married couple. Must mean *something*, mustn't it?… [more]

From the transcendent Hanzi Smatter comes word of a research project some of you folks might be interested in. Mariah Miller, a graduate student at the Global Studies Programme (which is a joint project of the German University of Freiburg, the South African University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Indian Jawaharlal Nehru University) is looking for people with Chinese character tattoos to fill in a questionnaire (that's a .doc file, just so you know). Simple questions, yes-no answers or of the "very/somewhat/not very/not at all" variety, like: 8. If you are not Chinese, please rate your level of interest in China before you got your tattoo on a scale of one to ten where ten is “extremely interested” and zero is “zero interest in China… [more]

I've been listening to NPR lately (as I do), and they've been all over China. Not just listening to classical music, either. They just had a big report on an AIDS activist getting some recognition despite the "AIDS? What AIDS?" official line. Until Friday, the 80-year-old retired Dr. Gao Yaojie was under house arrest. Gao says that since Feb. 2, she has been confined to her apartment, by as many as 50 policemen. Their apparent aim was to keep her from traveling to the United States to receive an award from Vital Voices, a non-profit group that works with women leaders. The group's board of directors includes Sen. Hillary Clinton. Apparently, Clinton wrote a few letters that got the cops called away. So that's news. But what they're (OK… [more]