This is my first experience with blogging so I’m interested into how it’ll turn out.

A bit about me.  I was an undergrad student for far too long (7 years, full time, including summers).  While you may squirm at the cost of such an endeavor, I should mention that my dad is a professor and I was able to coattail on free credits for the majority of that time.  After completing this marathon degree, and being 2 weeks out from beginning a master’s in speech pathology, I decided I needed a break from school and moved to Shanghai.  And no, I couldn’t read/write the language, nor did I know anybody there.

Shanghai is fucking crazy (in a good way). With 24 million people bustling around the first and only free trade zone in Mainland China, the rate of expansion in every sense is astounding.   In my minglings with Chinese nationals working in various fields, there was a type of question that kept popping up: “How would a Westerner do this?” Or, “How would a Westerner expect this?” The idea behind these questions is so basic, yet very profound in their implication. Because the Chinese language is structured in such a fundamentally different way than English and other Western languages, the structuring and formatting of information is just as foreign. As more and more organizations are gearing their focus towards the West, the need for the translation not just of language, but a translation of the structural bodies of information and how they can be located is growing as fast as the country.

Adding to this buzz is the country-wide blocking of almost every popular social media site (Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia…).  Although there is a small population of young people and foreigners who use VPN services to bypass the blockages, the majority of Chinese nationals rely on what is permitted.  The main social media app, WeChat, is a combination of Whatsapp and Facebook, with shadows of Twitter and Instagram lurking in the background.  Because WeChat, like everything in Mainland China, is heavily monitored by the government, the communication of ideas that the government wouldn’t approve of is relayed through the creative use of memes and emojis.  I’m not going to pretend that I understand all of this (or maybe even any of it), but I’m really interested in how the use of social media of Westerners differs from that of Chinese nationals.

After inhaling several tons of polluted air, and consuming hundreds of carcinogenic meals (Google “gutter oil”), I’m now back in the West as a student (just when I thought I was out…).  After I finish this degree I’m hoping to return to work in the animal soup known as China.