Xinran 薛欣然

Dear parents,
I received a gift from an adopting mother from Netherlands not long ago. It was a book called "Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother" by Xinran. It is an eye opening story about adoption in China. Having been translating letters for many of you made me intrigued about the adoption process in China. As someone who are not deeply involved in the process, I noticed that many official reports from the local authority are close to 95% identical. From the abandoned infant report to orphan development report. The book shows  a dark side of what happened behind the closed door of China one-child policy, the price to pay for cultural revolution and rapid economy development. It has once again confirmed a shameful side of Chinese culture where females were suppressed for thousands of years.

Check out this book if you are interested about the adoption history and process in China. 

Another hectic May

Hello parents,
work has not slowed down and I will be moving to another location in Austin next week. Apologize if I cannot deliver any work to you as early as you expect but I will try my best.

Excuse my slow response

It is that time of the year again but this time around, 24 hours seem not enough for me to do my work. My job is exciting and I really like it, the challenges come with fulfilment and a sense of accomplishment (if I get it done).

With that says, I just want to let you know that I don't get a lot of time to check my email lately to do translation. Please pardon my slow response. I will get to it during weekend. Happy spring to you!

A Much Anticipated Summer

Matthias and I are finally going to Malaysia to visit the place where I once called home.

We plan to be there for a little over 2 weeks but that's not a lot of time especially the fact that we have to spend 3-4 days of time loss in traveling and dealing with timezone difference. Regardless, I am still excited to be there with him. We are planning to visit part of Borneo, particularly Sabah while we are there. As I started to read on the things to do in Sabah, I begin to worry that we will not have enough time to do everything that we want to do there so I guess we will probably need to use some tough love to select just a few places that we can visit while we are there.

In essense, I really would like to hit these spots of Sabah:
1. Mount Kota Kinabalu trekking and catching the magnificent sunrise
2. Have a wild adventure at the Danum Valley Conservation to see Proboscis monkeys. I know, what a weird looking creature.

3. As the newbies in scuba diving, we got hooked from the Blue Hole experience in Belize. Naturally, we would love to hit Sipadan -- the much acclaimed best diving spot in the world.

 

 

 

Gone

Gone, just like my oldest brother during the holidays season. Sam left this earth due to motorcycle accident and the whole family is still shaken from the reality. I was spending my holidays in Paris when I heard the news and was able to get a last-minute ticket to fly back to Malaysia to attend his funeral.

I came back to US last week but my mind is still in Malaysia. Hoping and wishing that everyone in the family continues to stay strong and heal, especially my mom who is in vulnerable health condition. Please pray for them. Thank you.

Belize

I spent a week in Belize during Thanksgiving week and really enjoyed our very first Caribbean vacation with  friends, it was a fantastic getaway. When we landed Belize, I was surprised to see how the Chinese community is thriving in this small country. Apparently the Chinese and Taiwanese governments have special agricultural trade relationship with Belize and I was told that one third of Belize population is Chinese. More specifically, the Cantonese. Why? I have no idea but most of them seems to be operating either restaurants, or grocery store for living. The store business looks very similar to the kind that my father (who is a first generation immigrant in Malaysia) is operating now and it brings back a lot of memories of growing up in a small rural town and in the shop.

For examples, I learned to calculate changes quickly when customer passed me the monies. I learned to say "what do you want?", "how many", "how much do you want?" in Malay before I started elementary school. After school, I spent my afternoon doing homework in front of the shop while keeping an eye on shoplifter. During our nap time, mom would lay down a few pieces of newspaper on the concrete floor at a corner where customers don't usually come during the nap hours. I don't recall if we had pillow to sleep on but I remember staring at the boxes of fabrics and tailor's accessories while trying to go to sleep...and many more fond and not so fond childhood memories.

At Caye Caulker, I looked at the young Chinese girl who was guarding the cashier and doing homework at the sametime and thought perhaps someday she would grow up just as lucky as me. To have a career, decent paid job, a safe shelter and a comfortable life. I was humbled by what I saw and filled with a great sense of pride of my root. Throughout the trip, I kept telling Matt how my childhood was like in a rural town and how I learned to play games with anything we could find in the nature.

All through my teenage, I felt like I was always trying to be somebody else to fit in at a private school where upper middle class kids attend. Luckily, my school friends accepted me as I was and we continue to stay friends for almost 20 years now (boy, do I feel old!). Accomplishments in life helped to bring more confidence in me, but when I was young and accomplished little -- I was lost and wished someone could have told me that I should be proud of who I am, no matter what. I think all parents should reinforce the confidence in their children so that they are not lost in the big world of egoism and stereotypes.

An Honorary Help

Recently, Nathan from fwcc.org approached me to translate some Chinese children growth charts. It was nice of him to mention my service for credit, I am truly proud of helping for sure. I hope this will also spread the word of my service to other parents who need translation help.

Marion from Netherlands has mailed me a thank you gift and it is a book named "Message from an unknown Chinese mother", this is will my vacation read in Belize this week. Thank you, Marion.