败子回头 (The Return of the Prodigal Son)

Sitemeter tells me that most of my readership long ago left Changsha et al. for dead, but for those of you still clinging to the hope that new content might emerge, Christmas has come late this year. As this semester draws to a close and I prepare for another season of international travel, I thought it appropriate to breathe some new life into my only consistent chronicle of these two years. I have spent most of the last four months in Guangzhou and Zhuhai (the former my home, the latter my once-a-week teaching locale), though it should be noted that since my last post I did travel to Harbin in Heilongjiang Province (Administrative Region #27), Changchun in Jilin Province (Administrative Region #28), and Taipei and Taizhong in Taiwan ("Administrative Region #29").

Life in Guangzhou differs from life in Changsha mostly insofar as the city is far more developed and decently more cosmopolitan in outlook. I have begun studying Cantonese in order to better take advantage of my surroundings, but in truth the extent to which one needs it in addition to Mandarin is scarcely larger than the extent to which knowledge of the Hunanese dialect would have been necessary last year. A more noticeable difference - one which few Chinese people neglect to point out - is the paucity of spice in local cuisine. The regional cuisines (primarily Cantonese and Chaozhou) are notoriously bland, although in my opinion the availability of high quality dim sum makes up for the deficiency. Perhaps the greatest lifestyle improvement has been Guangzhou's ever-expanding metro system: from what I could gather, most Changsha bus drivers honed their skills on the job, and I do not miss them.

In nine days I will embark on another winter's journey along various tendrils of the Chinese diaspora, which I will surely tell you about. Until then, I recommend this level-headed, non-hysterical treatment of China's political landscape.