President and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao has once again outlined his vision for China's future: You say you want a revolu-shuh-hunn... but nothing too dramatic, mind you.

No, no, wait, sorry. He said: Insist on the party’s leadership, governance by the people and ruling the nation by laws. The "by the people" part is not to be mistaken for Western-style democracy. It's something else.

Something profitable, but not exactly free. (One of the interesting things about Chinese political ideology is that whatever the system is right now, it's not meant to... more

So, if you've been wondering what's been up with this blog over the past couple of days, your humble typist was on the other side of Florida, having packed the kids and My Sojourning Spouse into our minivan (of all things) to drive 230 miles and hang out with two other families we met over the computer.

We were all in the same DTC group - not with the same agency (in fact, three different agencies), and not adopting from the same city or province, but all with the same paperwork going in at the same time. We... more

So, various members of my family have pointed this thing out to me, and I haven't been able to find much out.

But both Brian Stuy's Research-China (third sentence down) and The Rumor Queen (explanation #2) have recently alluded to rumors that China is opening more, possibly all, of its Social Welfare Institutes to the international adoption program. This... more

No, not this kind of mandarin!

Faithful readers may recall my prior concerns over the upcoming Iron Man movie, as directed by Jon "Dinner for Five" Favreau, in which children will... more

Here's something to read from someone who went there and did that: Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeff Gammage wrote a new book on his adopting from China, and his paper was nice enough to post an excerpt (with some great bios at the bottom of the piece). If I was just starting the process,... more

So you want to learn Mandarin but you're intimidated by its reputation as a "hard language"? It can be totally eays. Here's a poem that I swear I'm not making up.

Here are the first two lines:

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī. Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.

It's easier to figure out in English: "In a stone den was the poet Shi, who loved to eat lions and... more

Check out this big bird in China. No, not Big Bird in China (amusing and educational though that video may be).

It's a really BIG bird in China!

Yes, scientists have discovered the remains of a deadly prehistoric Chinese ostrich in Inner Mongolia.... more

Listening to the Wind in the Pines, Ma Lin

People say that Wen Wang could drink a thousand jugs of wine and Confucius, a hundred gallons. From this we're supposed to conclude these sages had outstanding virtue, since they could handle so much liquor. If they could sit down and toss back a thousand jugs or a hundred gallons, they must've been winos, not sages!

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So, this has been a weeked of breakthroughs and milestones, not just because it's been Father's Day and son (son!)'s birthday. Witness the warming of the state of affairs I've been referring to as toddler detente.

It's been gradual, but Daughter now seems to genuinely enjoy doing things with that strange creature we showed up with just over a year ago. Like helping bake him a birthday cake.

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My Studious Spouse, the one with the job doing the home studies, recently pointed me toward a bulletin she'd received from the agency with which she contracts. It's about adoptions from Taiwan, which apparently are getting more popular (as previously alluded to in this space). If you'd like to be adopting from Taiwan, you should definitely include some descriptions of your exposure to and familiarity with the culture, and your... more