Happy Holidays! Here in Jiujiang, the Christmas holiday is mostly celebrated by the younger generation and what better way to celebrate an occasion than with a colorful helium balloon! You can see more images from Christmas eve, 2009, by clicking the image above.
Travel
What better way to begin a new newsletter than to begin the travel feature with the very first travel destination I visited in China? I can't think of a better one. If you click the photo you'll see an entire slide show from that first cross-country trip from Jiujiang to Shanghai that I took in China.
Spotlight: News & Updates
The book is finished and published! It's title: Jiujiang: 九江 Nine Rivers. Yes, that's right- the story about typical life in typical China is finally on the shelves. Well... on the self-publish, eShelves of Blurb, but shelves nonetheless!
Now you can have your own copy [hardback or soft cover] to read and learn about life in an average city in China and contemporary culture of Chinese lifestyle by clicking one of the badges below.
You can choose between two versions of the book- the Special Edition [with the orange border] which includes an introduction account of my initial journey from the US to Jiujiang, and the regular edition [with the green border] without the introduction.
Add this book to your holiday gift list, order before December 31st, use the PROMO code below and save $10 dollars [USD] off of the cover price. How cool is that?!
Orders from the US (using US $): GREATGIFT
Orders from UK (using UK £): GREATGIFT2
Orders from EU (using EU €): GREATGIFT3
Orders from AU (using AUD $): GREATGIFT4
Aside from the book, the newsletter is back! Well, 'it's on it's way back' is more appropriate. What I mean is- while I have it mostly finished, polished, and ready for the showroom floor, there are some finishing touches to address. But seeing as how the holiday's are smack dab upon us and seeing as how it's been so terribly long since I've been in touch with you, I felt I'd tighten up the loose bolts [so to speak] and give it a test run to let you know I'm still here, things are still fine [enough], and as always, I'm working on something new to give you.
You'll notice a lot of changes to the newsletter. For starters- the graphics and the layout have been updated. The design is much simpler- there are three key sections in the newsletter: Photography, Travel, and Lifestyle. Plus Spotlight, the section where I get to promote some new 'thing' that has come up since the last post. That's the section your reading now- isn't it great?!
Since my last newsletter to you, I have been busy thinking of what people want to know from over here [in China] and in the end I've settled on simply continuing to make what I provide better, which is: putting up the information, photography and travel tips, from inside China from the viewpoint of an American foreigner.
With all of that in mind, the new newsletter is going to a quarterly update and release schedule, rather than attempting to make a monthly update; which I incessantly keep missing [kinda like my web host provider, but we won't talk about that]. From time to time I may have something fantastic to update in between newsletters, which may warrant an update email or two, but overall the idea is to put up four newsletters each year.
For this reason I've added a small, simple subscription step to update the information I have for you from way back. So that I can give you the best and most interesting information that you want, I've put together this 'please include me / please leave me alone' subscription button. Click the red pill [sorry, I meant red button] to update your information in my list. Click the blue 'button' to remove your name from the mailing list.
 
It's pretty easy, very direct, and will only take a moment for you to update your status in my mail list. So please take a moment to push one of the two buttons so that I know whether you still want to see the latest news and updates about what's going on in my little corner of the world.
As for the rest of what is happening-
I'm in the process of migrating all of the TravelersBlog from Blogspot to Wordpress since it appears the censors and the Great Firewall have banned Google blog sites for good. That also goes for Facebook and Twitter. Those sites have been blocked since last summer when the riots broke out up north in Urumuqi.
The Fall semester at JJU has just wrapped up. Spring Festival is February 14th this year. It's the year of the Tiger- the animal sign I was born under.
I'll be making a trip back to the US in February of 2010, to St. Louis, MO for nearly three weeks.
And that about wraps up the latest updates. So I'll leave this section with a thank you for reading and below is a short commentary on holiday lifestyle in Jiujiang.
Lifestyle
a dash of holiday culture.
In Jiujiang, over the past three holiday seasons, I have watched the display of Christmas grow from a small handful of a Christmas tree's decorated in front of downtown shopping centers to a multitude of displays and events celebrating the festivities. The origin of Christmas is lost on most local citizens. They simply acknowledge it as a 'western holiday.' If you ask, they often claim not to celebrate Christmas as it is not in their cultural tradition. Instead, they celebrate Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year. However, it's hard to ignore the youthful excitement surrounding the idea of; shopping, gifts, and treats.
If the past three years growth in advertising the commercial approach to Christmas is any gauge to predict which way the cultural infusion is heading, I'd say by the time this young teen generation comes into adulthood, Christmas will be as common a calendar holiday in China as Golden Week, the yearly celebration of the birth of the People's Republic. Albeit, still far below the importance of Spring Festival.
For the most part, the celebration of Christmas centers around commerce and it is a small reflection onto how the Chinese consumer business model is slowly adopting more and more strategies and behaviors from developed nations economic profiles.
Traditionally, China is a barter and trade culture. The price on the item, if there is a price, isn't the price you pay. It's the price you begin bartering from. This has been the case for every item from food, to clothing, to hand tools. The price was flexible [to a degree].
Today, more small business owners are refusing to barter. The price on the item is the price you pay. This is far more common in the larger stores and chains than at the small private business, but the practice of bargaining is beginning to slip away.
Will it ever be completely vanquished? Somehow, I doubt it. A great part of the culture is the entertainment and the challenge of bringing the price down- even when both parties know one yuan isn't going to matter greatly in the grand scheme of things.
**Each update to the TravelersBlog includes an observation about contemporary lifestyle in China [from the viewpoint of life in Jiujiang, mostly and thus far].
My hope is that you will come away with a greater understanding and appreciation for Chinese living after each newsletter. |
