001./ Beijing Calling
It's an epic plane ride from Detroit to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Hong Kong.
One day of rest in Hong Kong, shopping with the extended family, and
the best dim sum you've ever had in your life. Then it's on to Beijing.
It's weird to be alone in a country where you cannot speak with anyone
at random, where you have a hard time ordering lunch, and where
everything is a stark contrast between very rich (for example, the Wenjin International Hotel)
and the very poor (for example, the shacks that line the other side of
the street). I'm not totally alone, but for the past day or so, I've
felt very much so.
I'd rather not have started a separate blog for this journey, considering I'll be here in China for at most two months, and my current personal blog, The Noise of the Street Enters the House, is gaining some level of readership. Unfortunately, The Noise seems to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China. More than anything it has increased my fears about my personal safety here in Beijing.
Maybe this is a good time to introduce myself. I'm Cayden, a 21-year-old philosophy major at the University of Michigan. I'm here in China on University business -- through GIEU, I'm here with 16 others to engage in intergroup dialogue at Peking University. I'm the only person of Chinese descent on our trip, and this is my first time seeing the motherland. I'm only half, but that half has a pretty serious history. More on that later...I'm learning a lot about my heritage already, including my relatives who have graduated from Peking University and my great-great uncle Yan Fu, who was president of the University in the early 20th century. The other half was born and bred in Detroit, Michigan, roots of which I am also exceptionally proud.
I've been involved in social justice dialogue for some time. I'm a trained facilitator in the Program on Intergroup Relations at U of M, a commitment I've made in large part to represent non-binary social identities in campus social justice. I'm a post-gender identified FTM, and that's why I'm worried about my safety wherever I travel. Usually I've had overwhelmingly good experiences with people, but that's not barring the possibility that things might get ugly in the future. I've lived the past four years of my life not so much in fear but in extreme caution, and traveling to a country where I cannot explain my gender situation to people easily is my idea of kind of risky behavior.
The next six weeks are going to be really interesting. I don't really know much about Chinese attitudes toward people of non-binary gender identities. I don't really know if people think about these things so much here. Hong Kong seemed pretty laid back, but Hong Kong is an entirely different creature than the mainland.
I'd rather not have started a separate blog for this journey, considering I'll be here in China for at most two months, and my current personal blog, The Noise of the Street Enters the House, is gaining some level of readership. Unfortunately, The Noise seems to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China. More than anything it has increased my fears about my personal safety here in Beijing.
Maybe this is a good time to introduce myself. I'm Cayden, a 21-year-old philosophy major at the University of Michigan. I'm here in China on University business -- through GIEU, I'm here with 16 others to engage in intergroup dialogue at Peking University. I'm the only person of Chinese descent on our trip, and this is my first time seeing the motherland. I'm only half, but that half has a pretty serious history. More on that later...I'm learning a lot about my heritage already, including my relatives who have graduated from Peking University and my great-great uncle Yan Fu, who was president of the University in the early 20th century. The other half was born and bred in Detroit, Michigan, roots of which I am also exceptionally proud.
I've been involved in social justice dialogue for some time. I'm a trained facilitator in the Program on Intergroup Relations at U of M, a commitment I've made in large part to represent non-binary social identities in campus social justice. I'm a post-gender identified FTM, and that's why I'm worried about my safety wherever I travel. Usually I've had overwhelmingly good experiences with people, but that's not barring the possibility that things might get ugly in the future. I've lived the past four years of my life not so much in fear but in extreme caution, and traveling to a country where I cannot explain my gender situation to people easily is my idea of kind of risky behavior.
The next six weeks are going to be really interesting. I don't really know much about Chinese attitudes toward people of non-binary gender identities. I don't really know if people think about these things so much here. Hong Kong seemed pretty laid back, but Hong Kong is an entirely different creature than the mainland.
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