On the Doorstep

So the idea of a travel blog has appealed to me for quite a while now. I made an abortive Xanga-based effort at one during my first international journey away from my family, to Costa Rica (no, you can't see it), but failed to keep up with it, largely due to lack of computer availability and my discovery of bash.org. Hopefully this one will be better maintained, have an audience of more than myself, and maybe even serve as a lasting reminder to myself of the period starting today and ending in about a month.

For those of you don't know what this is all about, next Tuesday at about six in the morning, Christine is going to call me exasperatedly and tell me to get the hell out of bed, cause we've got to go to China. Why go to China? Well, we've been talking about going to the Beijing Olympics for a couple of years now, and in spite of outside difficulties and being generally ineffectual people, it's actually happening. I've gotta admit, I didn't see that one coming. But on a less immediate level, why go to China? Adventure, mostly. The kind of adventure that you feel within you when you know you're a part of something mysterious and big, something that's changing the world in so many intricate ways, both subtle and profound. They say this Olympics is going to be the most important one in decades. And in many ways, it is. This is China's debut on the world stage. Anyone who's ever seen the 'Made in China' stamp that appears on almost every accessory of modern life knows that China's a big deal, but until recently, the country has remained barely audible to international ears. The Olympics will be the window by which the world gets a look inside, at the resounding successes and the harsh realities of the people of the Middle Kingdom. Look at how where once the fate of Tibet was an issue that a few hippies would protest every couple years, but is now being discussed at the highest levels of government around the world. Look at the saber rattling many in the US are engaged in against China, and it's clear that many around the world are uncomfortable with the nascent new world order China's Olympic ambitions herald. But this isn't just about China, for though China is the first, they certainly won't be the last. This is merely the first of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations flexing its newly developed political muscles. This is but the first shot in a geopolitical revolution that threatens to destroy the centuries-old East/West, North/South divides in economic development. These four new great powers are enormous, controlling vast amounts of the world's land area and human capital, and they are different, promoting cultures, ideologies, and beliefs radically different from what the traditional European and North American rulers of the world are used to. But this is by no means just a test for the world at large, this is just as much a test for China itself. With the newfound openness and international attention garnered by the Olympics, will the Chinese people be content to remain under the yokes of the corrupt Communist bureaucrats? The ghosts of Tiananmen have been largely forgotten in favor of explosive economic and technological growth, but will this same growth plant the seeds for a new generation of revolutionaries? With increased wealth, Chinese will begin to import goods from abroad, and, inevitably, these goods will bring foreign cultural products with them. What would they Chinese think of a Saturday Night Live sketch lampooning American government officials, or news of the people of France rioting for change? Perhaps for now, they're too busy clamoring over one another chasing the wealth pouring into the country, but maybe one day soon there will arise the sentiment that something's missing. Now I ask you, what greater adventure could there be than that? To have a front row seat as the tapestry of history unfurls, and to better understand the world that we will all soon be living in. For that reason, I named my blog 冒险, maoxian, Chinese for adventure or dangerous activity, both in homage to the excitement of being where the action is, and the extreme overuse of the word 'adventure' by Christine and myself in reference to this and many other activities.