China's #1 English language paper was 'born' 35 years ago,
today. At that time I was a young mother, living in Germany. I had thought my
path in life had already been decided, for better or worse. I had no idea of
China Daily's existence, and it knew nothing of me. Fate would bring us
together.
When CD was
27 – an age in humans that I consider optimal, I had the privilege of visiting
China for the first time. I didn't want to because all I knew of China was what
I had heard or read in western media, and not much of it, if anything, was
good. By the time that birthday of CD's rolled around, I was living in America,
a divorced mother of 2. My ideas and prejudices were formed by my environment
and I never realized how my perceptions had been shaped until I stepped foot in
this country.
The
devastating earthquake in Sichuan province happened just before I visited China
for the first time, in May, 2008. ChinaDaily had been recommended to me by the
academic group I would be traveling with. In the weeks before arriving in
China, I gingerly picked through articles, trying to find redeeming qualities
in a country I was determined to not like. With ChinaDaily's reporting, I was
introduced to a side of China no one ever intimated to. Before even stepping
foot on Chinese soil, ChinaDaily caused me to wonder if everything I had read
and heard about China until now could be credited.
What
impressed me most was China Daily's coverage of the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008.
China Daily took a sensitive look at the devastating loss and of the boy who
risked his life, saving his classmates. This excellent news outlet didn't stop
at the immediate vicinity of the quake: CD went on to report on the effects of
the quake as far away as Xi'an, where people were so fearful that they would
die in their sleep, crushed by their building crumbling from an aftershock,
that they slept on the sidewalks, outside their apartments.
That 2008
visit changed my life! After a too-short, 3-week stay, I resolved to connect
with China in the most fundamental way possible: live here. Of course, it took
some doing to divorce myself from life as I knew while preparing to embark on a
new direction. The 2 years I spent preparing for this journey, I spent in the
company of China Daily: reading every article, ingesting the Culture and
Lifestyle sections especially. Later, I discovered the Language Tips section.
It helped greatly in my learning of this timeless tongue. The Travel section
fueled my dreams of wandering all over the country.
It wasn't until March, 2014 that China Daily and I
established our formal relationship. It came about so: One of my former
students, now studying in Australia, asked me via QQ chat to look up something.
I automatically went to China Daily homepage, and there found an ad for a
blogging contest.
A blogging
contest? I'm a blogger! I've been blogging in the west since the outset of my
China adventure! Unfortunately, everyone else blogs in the west too, it seems,
and one lone blog about a middle-aged woman in China just doesn't seem to make
a splash. People in the west – like me, as I once was, just don't find any
appeal in China. After all; that's why I didn't like China or want to come
here. To this day, after 6 years of writing and over five hundred articles
posted on my (western) Vagabond Blog, I have virtually no following.
Of course, it
could be simply because I'm not an engaging writer, too. But then...
China Daily's
blogging community; instantly I became a welcome member. Unlike my western
blog, where nary a comment appears, here, every one of my articles garners at
least a handful of comments. And I get to participate! Oh, the friends I've
made in this blogging community! Writing with China Daily has been one of my
greatest pleasures; truly an outlet for this heretofore frustrated author. I've
even won awards!
Now, six
years into my China adventure and entering my second year as a ChinaDaily
blogger, I continue to get my news first from this source. Thank you,
ChinaDaily!
Happy
Birthday!
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