Y and I are in Changchun. Changchun (literally meaning long spring) was once the capital of Manchuria, which was the name of Northeast China under Japanese occupation from 1931 to 1945. Today, it’s the capital of Jilin province and China’s biggest auto manufacturer. After lunch we set out to take a cab that will take […]
Tag Archives: Jilin
This is part 3 of a story of a family dinner. If you haven’t read what happened at the dinner, click here for part 1 (“A family dinner and to raise your glass or not to raise your glass”) and here for part 2 (“A loss of face”). After Y has paid, his mother who […]
This is part 2 of the story of a family dinner with my husband’s extended family in their hometown Siping in Northeast China. In part 1 (“A family dinner and to raise or not to raise your glass”), daye, my husband’s oldest uncle wants me to raise my glass to him. Will I give in […]
One day while travelling through my husband’s home province Jilin in July 2013, we come by a city called Tonghua. My husband’s friend is living there and my husband has promised to pay her and her mother, who is seriously ill, a visit. My phone got stolen a few days before on our train ride […]
Ever since we met, Y and I have spent every single day together. It’s hard not to when you sit right next to each other in the office. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t times when we were apart, but it was always only for so long. There was one time when Y had to […]
One day in July 2013, Y and I visit his 9-year-old niece in Changchun. At dinner, she asks me: “Are there any positive aspects of having a different citizenship?” I: “There are. If you hold a Chinese citizenship it’s not very easy to go abroad. You’ll need a visa for almost every country. If you’re […]
Four years ago, my in-laws bought an apartment in their hometown Siping in Northeast China’s Jilin province. Two years ago, they should have been able to move into their new apartment. But the apartment had not been finished at that time. It’s still not finished now, two years later. When my husband and I walk […]
One day, my in-laws and I are waiting for my husband at the market in his hometown, Siping. I take a picture of a basket with string beans. When one of the women working at the market sees this, she points at a basket with tomatoes she sells and says: “Take a picture of these. […]
One day in late June 2013 my husband and I visit gugu. Gugu is my father-in-law’s older sister and I like her immediately. She is an elderly woman in her late 70s who lives with her husband, son, daughter-in-law, her grandson and a few chicken and geese in the countryside of Northeast China’s Jilin province. […]
At the beginning of July 2013, Y and I spend a day in Yanji. Yanji is a city not too far from the North Korean border and is the capital of the Korean autonomous prefecture in Jilin province. Street signs, advertisements and the like are all written in Chinese as well as Korean. Both Chinese […]
China elevator stories 