Change

I had originally wanted this blog to be concerned with news analysis, sharing my special position as an individual who speaks Chinese and who is fairly plugged into the online China watcher community. The personal experience of living in China, an avid interest in international relations and the changing nature of world affairs, as well as an academic background in China and Chinese culture allows me to express opinions on China-relevant developments that most North American commentators lack. At this point, I have a level of familiarity that is far beyond the experiences of most students who study in China for one semester, or people who study China in the U.S. without ever personally visiting the country.

However, I am still a human being, and as a result I am composed of more then just logical analysis. An a multifaceted individual I have many interests, many thoughts, and a wide variety of things that I want to write about. Unlike my former classmate and current blogmate (I wonder if there is a good word for that), I have not separated these two facets of myself into two different blogs. Rather I am meshing them together fairly haphazardly in a single virtual location.

Anyone who stays up to date on this blog (all five of you) will easily be able to notice that over the past month, I have been posting far more personal items and far fewer academic or professional items. Although I still want to put up more nuanced (I love that word) news analysis, I am going to embrace this change of posting personal items as well. After all, I am not writing this so that FP or the NYT will notice my phenomenal writing skills or anything, but instead to share with family and friends what is happening in my mind and my life.