If you don't want to assimilate, should you (I) ever even go (back) to China?

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kitano

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Dear lord, give me the serenity to accept the things that I can't change, and the courage to change the things I can.

It did seem to be kind of the joke when I turned up here 10 years ago, like it was a bit like being drunk in a crazy bar being in China during their industrial revolution. Now we are a bit further into the night

One thing that has stayed with me more than anything about my exile from China is that when I was fucking up my marriage it was 2016 when Britain and USA lost those two elections to bullshit and I was really depressed, and my wife said 'why don't you care about me instead of that?'
It did happen after that sunk in that I was just watching something I couldn't change. I was using it to dodge my own problems, should have just been nice to my wife.

This thread is making me nostalgic. Maybe that's not the correct word.

I too am an exile from China. Part of me wants to go back, but if I'm being honest, it's in large part wanting to go back to China in 2012.

Like Kitano (or at least I think this is what he's saying) I do sometimes wonder if I gave myself to concerns and issues that would and could never love me back.

You want to change the world, or failing that try to change the world, or failing that try to help people who are trying to change the world, and in the end, all you're left with is the feeling of having failed.

But anyway,as I say nostalgic. This really was a great place to be, with really great people. There probably were a few short lived and destructive typhoons I've managed to erase from my memory, but this community was a really nice part of my life.

I might be out of practice with the whole on-topic thing.
Sorry. As you were.

I know what you mean about nostalgia. I'm told that dogs are loyal to families, and cats to places, but with me it's the combination of where and when. And 10 years ago things were pretty good in China.

Can we ever go back and stick our toes in the same river a second time? Probably not. Is it worth going back and sticking one's toes in the new and improved river? YMMV, but for me probably yes.

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El Macho

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  • 东北人都是活雷锋

I too am an exile from China. Part of me wants to go back, but if I'm being honest, it's in large part wanting to go back to China in 2012.
just this.

I would love to go back to 2006 Changchun. Where I was, the people I was with, and what I did and experienced and felt were just what I needed.
I went back to China a few years later and stayed for five years but tbh it wasn’t the same - in retrospect it’s just because I lucked into something special the first time around.