Oh, any my Chinese is far from perfect. A cursory glance at my (now more-or-less defunct) Chinese LJ should be enough to reveal that. I’m actually going to be moving da_bizi over to the new version of bokane.org, which will be unveiled as soon as I can find a Chinese translation of “disoriented in the orient” which preserves the pun.

I have just discovered your two LiveJournals, and I’ve been catching up with your latest entries on http://www.bokane.org.

You have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how refreshing it is for me to meet an American in Harbin, who speaks (from what I can tell) perfect Chinese. Heck, I don’t even speak Chinese that good any more.

And why? Because I’m a Harbin native in Toronto, Canada. The last 3 years, while having given me an opportunity to have intimate contact with the western civilization, disassociated me from the Chinese way of life. As you can probably tell now, I desperately miss my 13 years in China – friends, the environment, and just plain EXISTENCE as a Chinese, a Harbin native. Now, I am being classified as a Chinese Canadian; while I myself don’t like to think that way, I have to admit that I’m not so Chinese any more. I can FEEL that my Chinese culture (along with the language) is flying away from me at an alarming pace.

Reading your posts brings back sheer memories, pleasurable and painful. They are all coming back to me. Especially the bit about “Revolutionary Struggle Road” and “Red Army Avenue”, because I used to live close to there.

(And I agree, Chinese – especially Harbin – parents can be VERY cutthroat. Case in point, my parents. I can only fathom a guess that it’s because of their horseback-ridin’, horse-milk-drinkin’ Manchurian / Mongolian ancestors.)

I’d LOVE to have you as an acquaintance, to perhaps keep my Chinese feeling alive, however bizarre the circumstance may be. This’ll do for now, and I wish you a pleasant time in Beijing (I’d say it probably would be, seeing how Beijing has a WAY larger western influence than Harbin.) My LiveJournal handle is yuethomas.