As the year draws to a close, I’m taking a break during this holiday season to reflect on the past year — and gear up for 2012. In the meantime, I’d like to share with you the top five posts for the year — not just to give me a breather, but to revisit the best of 2011 by views (especially for all of you new readers out there).
- Are Jewish Women More Likely to Marry Chinese Men? This post first exploring the Jewish women-Chinese men connection got more of your attention than anything else in 2011. But if you love this one, you really should read my expanded version, an article for Asian Jewish Life titled “Chosen Women Choosing Chinese Men: A Tradition of Love?”
- On Discrimination and Marriage to a Chinese Man. When things fell apart for John and I in early November, I couldn’t help but write about it on this site. Thanks to everyone who commented or shared this — you all made me feel a little less alone during some tough times (which, sadly, haven’t ended quite yet).
- Marriage in China is Home, Car, Money? My take on one side of modern marriage in China really got you reading and talking about it.
- How My Anti-Japanese Husband Changed His Mind About Japan. The March 11 tsunami in Japan also ushered in a sea change for my husband, along with a wave of comments.
- I Love You, Just Not in Chinese. All these years, my Chinese husband had told me “I love you” in English but could never bring himself to say the same in Mandarin Chinese.
Happy holidays and Happy 2012 to all!
P.S.: Don’t forget to check out my Favorites page, with my own hand-picked list of the best posts on Speaking of China.
I liked reading all the articles 🙂 Best of luck to you and John and happy holidays.
Happy New Year and happy holidays to you too, Jocelyn. You and John deserve a break. We await more interesting posts from you. And thanks for consistently writing.
I’ve noticed something as I read over the posts and comments.
I wonder if you need to be unusually optimistic to date a Chinese man. The reason why is someone who’s on the neutral/pessimistic end of the spectrum tends to look at indirect communication and go “I really don’t know what that’s about. Huh?” or “Maybe he’s just being nice because he’s trying to have sex with me.” I know that’s what I usually kept wondering, and — surprise, surprise — the relationship didn’t get very far. (This was not helped by the fact that the coworker who set us up said: “He doesn’t speak much English. But that’s ok, you don’t need to communicate much to date someone.” I got the vague idea from that that he was implying that I was slutty because all Western women are slutty. But maybe I’m taking indirect communication too far?)
On a somewhat tangential note, I wonder if Deborah Tannen has ever looked into this particular area. I know she’s done a lot of work with Greek/American relationships and intercultural communication, but I don’t know if she’s done anything with Chinese/Western communication patterns.
World famous Chinese male-white female couple were honored at the Kennedy Center earlier this month and it was shown on TV yesterday……
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/images/stories/large/2010/08/16/YoYoAndJill.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/an-interview-with-yo-yo-ma-silk-road-chinese-music-41028.html&usg=__-6yqSFJutJtIOCydWw_7yo3h8cQ=&h=656&w=750&sz=52&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&tbnid=Uhk5H4AVXKq2uM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=141&ei=AjD7Tp3XBsqDtgeW3q3QBg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dyo%2Byo%2Bma%2Bwife%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to you too, Jocelyn! I hope the new year brings a fresh start and happy times for you both. You deserve it!