Comments | torakiyoshi: Day of the Dead

torakiyoshi

Day of the Dead

Apr 04, 2018 22:59

Tomorrow is the start of Tomb Sweeping Festival (清明节, Qīngmíng) here in China. It's a public holiday, so for us Americans that pretty much means, we get a couple extra days off, sort of. We have to make up Friday's classes on Sunday. I don't know what happens to Thursday's classes, but we don't have to make them up. So, whatever. Pretty much ( Read more... )

holidays, china, religion, first-impressions, christians

Comments 7

allaboutweather April 18 2018, 01:27:48 UTC

Isn't 4 an unlucky number in China since death and four sound similar in Chinese?

torakiyoshi April 22 2018, 23:02:30 UTC

I asked about this... in the Northeast, they aren't as superstitious as in say, Beijing, where the number four is avoided like the number 13 in America.

allaboutweather April 23 2018, 13:18:16 UTC

Ah. Yeah, talking about the government burning papers was indeed a faux pas considering talking bad or possibly joking about the government there is probably a no-no.

Just wondering, what brought you to China (besides a plane)?

torakiyoshi April 24 2018, 04:02:12 UTC

One must be careful when and how to make such jokes. But government documents aren't necessarily the government's doing. One might be burning one's tax paperwork... Still, risky.

Actually, three planes, two thousand dollars in visa paperwork, and a very enthusiastic job offer. It was the last one that was the real kicker. I wasn't even really serious. The day after I spoke to the recruiter at a job conference, she emailed me for a resume. The day after that, she scheduled an international Skype interview. Three days after that, and only half-way through the interview, I was offered the job.

It was also the fulfillment of a life-long dream to come to, and have plenty of time to get to know and explore, China.

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