...aaand WE'RE BACK!

It's official, I'll be heading back to Beijing for the summer of 2011!

Through the graciousness of the Tristan Perlroth Summer Travel Award Committee, operating out of the Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, I will be participating in an internship with the Confucius Education Institute in Beijing, where I will be teaching "cultural English" (we'll see what that means) to Chinese citizens (demographic details are currently murky). I will also be making a solid effort at general cultural immersion, since I feel like I was a little too concerned with my studies the last time around.

Here's what that means for my blog:

• Let's be honest, blogging about one's job, any job, carries a lot of personal and professional risk. Blogging about one's job in China during one of the biggest political crackdowns of the decade, while removed from the aegis of Yale University, is really just tapping trouble on the shoulder and asking it out for coffee. Ergo, details about my work itself will be sparse out of necessity.
• But you, my dear readers, few that you are, will hear plenty about any and all further adventures to be had around Beijing. I think, I hope, I've worked all of the "tourist" out of me; or at least, I've evolved into the more venerated "explorer." I'm going to try to get a better sense of the real rhythms of Beijing, not just the shiny facade presented to Westerners on their cultural sojourns. Can I do that in two months? Probably not. But trying is going to be so rewarding.

So please, stay tuned. It should be worth it. Maybe I'm just inflating my own cause here, but I truly believe that the events marking China's current evolution are crucial in their significance, not only to China but to the rest of the world.

P.S. YAY TO ME FOR MY 100TH POST! ...alright that's done.

The National Museum of China is... Open?

Finally, after over a decade, one of Beijing's largest and most prominent buildings will have purpose again.

National Museum of China during National Holiday

The National Museum of China, located in the heart of Beijing (and CCP headquarters), makes up one fourth of the glorified perimeter of Tiananmen Square, with Qianmen Gate, the Great Hall of the People, and Tiananmen Gate making up the other three sides. Recently, it has been a silent testament to the confusion felt by many over the tight-lipped nature of the Chinese Communist Party. For over ten years, it has been shut down for "renovations," although very few people could tell you what those renovations were. From every Beijinger I asked, the answer was always the same, "Who knows what they're doing? Who knows if the museum will ever open?"

Now that the doors are open, it will be interesting to see who chooses to walk through them. On one hand, the glorification of Chinese history that the museum purportedly displays may be uplifting to some citizens, while to others, it may only give rise to further frustration if the museum is found following a political agenda. This New York Times article suggests it very much does:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04museum.html?hp

I think many foreigners will go not only because it's a classic tourist trap, but also because it's a source of political, intellectual and historical fascination. How can a country so open be so closed at the same time? How can they present a historical narrative that is so obviously false? You would think that they couldn't, but people also thought that they couldn't open up their markets and continue to maintain a Communist regime. I suppose only time will tell.