from the china daily, referring to Zhang Qizhi, a well-known ideological and cultural historian:

He advocates education in China's fine cultural tradition, as its solid foundations allow a finer, more objective appreciation of Western achievements.

a lot of times when i tell people that i'm going back to america to study china this fall, they ask me why i don't just study at a chinese university. depending on how well i know the person and their temperament, sometimes this leads to a rational and balanced discussion, and sometimes i just smile and shrug. i've been trying to learn to tone down my natural inclination towards picking fights.

there're these two american christian bands coming here to perform in two weeks, and they asked me to translate their song lyrics for them. they're singing about half-rock (mostly u2) and half-praise songs. i asked karen to help me translate, and we spent all day working on them, which i really appreciated, since translating by myself would've taken years and might not have turned out readable. anyways, when we got to the praise songs, she refused to continue. she also didn't want me to translate the lyrics by myself, afraid that i'd get in trouble with the government for spreading christian messages on school grounds.

we had a lively discussion about this for over an hour, with karen using a variety of tactics ranging from comparing me to bin laden to saying i didn't care about any of my friends because they'd all be heartbroken when i got thrown in jail. what a fireball.

anyways, the bands are coming here to take a look at the plot of land that's been chosen by the local government for this american organization to build a church on (as well as a future school, hospital, and orphanage). i don't know too many of the details, but apparently all the money is coming from the american side; all that's required of the government is their approval. i don't think they'd risk losing millions of dollars in funds over an issue of christian song lyrics.