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[dandelionkiln]

Naturally, America has felt pretty peculiar since I returned. Especially having eaten at PF Chang's last night (which, while delicious, was nothing like what I ate abroad. Big surprise!) I have really appreciated having the past week to turn over my thoughts from when I was in Asia. The insightful conversations that I had with many students at

Comments

[nightingalesing]

Oh dear Christina! I'm so sorry you felt that you were ostracized as a woman in China. I've traveled extensively (and often alone) through many regions of the country and can't say I've ever had a similar experience.

In fact I haven't expected it either. China started a very progressive Woman's Rights campaigns back in the May Fourth Movement (1919) so it has a longer history with feminism than most Western countries. For that reason (as well as the feminist policies of the CCP enforced by what I suppose you're terming a psuedo-oppressed press) most academics agree that China is historically one of the most open and welcoming places for women.

I'm sorry you had that reaction but I'm so looking forward to your pictures. Get well soon!

[dandelionkiln]

Hey there! Hope you have been well, it has been a long time. I was surprised by the treatment that I experienced of women myself; I am aware of their history of feminism and was not anticipating it at all. That being said, I'm sure that the manner in which women are treated varies hugely depending on the region of China, the people who you happen to run into on any given day, and the woman to whom we are referring. For instance, since you speak the language and stick out like a sore thumb a lot less than I do, perhaps I had a tendency to run into people who were inclined to treat obviously foreign women a certain way, and maybe that was the distinguishing factor. I am glad to hear that it may be more of an exception instead of a rule--getting hip thrusted at and spit at just walking down the street in conservative clothes on a regular basis was hardly a pleasant experience (but unfortunately one that a lot of the women I interacted with on my trip agreed in having shared.) ironically enough, I was actually referring to the US when I

[dandelionkiln]

Commentary*. My apologies for the ugly formatting of this, I'm responding from IPhone. :P and thanks for your well wishes! I really do appreciate your response, it is neat to talk to someone who knows the country so well about my travels in retrospect and to hear that different perspective. Photos are forthcoming! There are so many of them because of all of the beautiful things; it is taking forever!

[nightingalesing]

Gosh, that's terrible! Well I'm sorry you and the women in your program went through an experience like that. It is my staunch belief that no one should be told what qualifies as an uncomfortable experience or not, so I hope you didn't take that as my intention. What I was reacting to was not the content of that critique, but the flippant and casual way in which it was addressed that, at least to my ears, made it seem that such an experience was the assumed norm

[icephantom]

pf chang's chinese food just doesn't compare to legit chinese food, hmm? haha :)

i want to see these photos. where are you uploading them if you are still uploading photos?

[dandelionkiln]

If you still want to see the photos, I put them on Facebook a while back--check my albums. :)