Ben's China Adventure

TRAVEL, CHINESE THANKSGIVING, AMERICAN CENSORSHIP

Despite my being in a country that censors what I write, I wouldn't have guessed the problem would come from America. Last post I wrote,

"We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, some of whom were smoking opium. We joined them in the room and they offered us tea. After each drinking a cup, the one guy who could speak Chinese (everyone else only spoke Lahu) told us "the tea will do something to you." A leader who will not be named made up that it was opium tea and we all departed. I don't know what the tea really was but I had crazy dreams."

Today I got an email from the Program Director of Where There Be Dragons, the program I'm on until Dec. 9th:

Ben,
We very rarely edit yak yaks [postings on their website] or fail to post yak yaks that students write, but I felt that your mention of opium in your latest yak yaks merited checking with your leaders. In most cases the only edits we make are when there is something written that is contrary to our safety policies. Clearly drinking tea with opium, whether real or implied is contrary to our policies and I therefore, after checking with your leaders, decided to edit that part.
Regards,
Doug Sandok

This is the second time I've been censored. Bah. The worst part was on their website, he rewrote my paragraph instead of deleating the content he disliked (Doug's additions in bold):

"We walked into a little room with about 15 people sitting in it, with 3 very old locals in traditional clothes smoking tobacco from their long pipes. They invited us into the room and offered us tea. Only one man could speak Chinese and everyone else spoke Lahu. The tea was very bitter and according to the man locally produced."

The tea was very bitter, and the 3 ladies in traditional dress were smoking (albeit opium) but I didn't say that in my post. Hmm.

First we took an overnight train to Chengdu. 1 1/2 days there, saw pandas and went to McDonalds. Didn't do too much else, it was really just a transit stop.

For as long as I can remember, almost every Thanksgiving my family and I would travel to visit relatives in Brooklyn. The highlight of the meal, aside for the turkey was always the macaroni & cheese. After the meal we usually play Scrabble. The next day we go eat lamb kebobs at a Turkish restaurant. Too no one's great surprise, old habits die hard.

Last night, with my Chinese leader we celebrated the slaughter of indigenous people. While the Chinese are pretty good at it, Americans are far more efficient. We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 23rd since we were travelling on the 24th. In Chengdu, we went to Grandma's Kitchen, a western restaurant in the foreigners section of town. At Grandma's I had a turkey club sandwich and mac & cheese followed by apple pie. We then went to the train station for our 16 hour train to Xi'an. While on the train we played Scrabble (the portable travel kind.) Arriving in Xi'an at around 2pm, we visited the Muslim district, saw the Great Mosque and ate lamb kebobs. So yeah, Thanksgiving can be done, even 8000 miles away.

Tomorrow it's the Terra Cotta Warriors, then Beijing in a few days. I'll keep updating when I can.