…continued Dating a Chinese man, or perhaps anyone outside your own culture, isn’t the easiest thing to do. There are different ideas, beliefs and customs. Even though we both don’t belong to any religion, my boyfriend is as superstitious as any other Chinese person. He was terrified when he found out that I had taken photographs [...] Keep reading »

Sara Jaaksola lives in Guangdong province where she write Living a Dream in China about her adventures. What is it like to date a Chinese guy? Or in more detail, what is it like for a Finnish girl living in China to love a Chinese boy from Guangdong province? I would say that it’s an adventure that I’m happy to be in. I haven’t f [...] Keep reading »

Today’s guest post comes from Jo. She writes the blog Life Behind the Wall about life as an African-American woman in China. There have been several controversial articles written on the internet regarding multicultural, multiracial relationships concerning Chinese men; however, being a Black American woman married to a Chinese man and living [...] Keep reading »

Over the next few days we’ll be looking at three different interracial marriages, though this time, it is the woman who is non-Chinese. First though I thought it might be beneficial for us to take a look back on some of the other posts on this topic (to date, the topic I have written the most about). In the past we have looked at weddings in [...] Keep reading »

For the next few weeks I will be in Germany attending a friend’s wedding and travelling, but I have been working hard to make sure that you will still have something to read during that time. Posts will be just slightly less regular (3x a week instead of 5x a week), and I might not be able to respond to comments or e-mails as promptly as I us [...] Keep reading »

If you are new to Traditional Chinese Medicine I suggest reading my other posts on the topic first (1, 2, 3, 4) For many Westerners “Traditional Chinese Medicine” brings to mind an image something like this However this is not what TCM looks like in most of China. At the hospital where I work there is a TCM department, their patients ar [...] Keep reading »

If you are unfamiliar with TCM I suggest starting with yesterdays post In the interest of transparency, I think it is important to note that I am skeptical of the efficacy of many TCM treatments that have not been examined by modern medicine, but so are many Chinese doctors (my discussion with doctors about TCM). Yet TCM persists, and is gaining in [...] Keep reading »

When I tell other foreigners that I am working in a Chinese hospital, the conversation often takes a quick detour to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Often they tell me that TCM is a much healthier choice, the evil of big pharmaceutical companies, and how thousands of years of practice have made TCM more effective. There is a lot here to unpack. [...] Keep reading »

We’ve talked before about the Chinese concept of family, and how it looks at times to foreigners. Today I’d like to talk a little bit about fighting in Chinese families, which has broad implications throughout China’s hierarchical structures (family, work, government…). For example this weekend I was traveling with my Chinese friend and his [...] Keep reading »