Welcome, dear reader!
I have decided to document my stay in Suzhou ,
in Jiangsu Province
Let me give myself a short introduction: My name is Mark, and I am currently working on a Master of Arts degree in the Pacific and Asian Studies Department at the University of Victoria. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree (with distinction), also from the University of Victoria, where I majored in History and Minored in Chinese Studies. I am interested in lots of nerdy academic things, from politics to economics to literature, and take great joy on reading about a large variety of subjects. My goal, once I have finished my master's thesis and earned my master's degree, is to continue onto Doctoral research with the intention of earning a PhD and then either working at a university or possibly finding work with the Canadian government at either the federal or provincial level.
Nerd credentials: My favorite magazine is Foreign Affairs
The first thing you may be asking yourself is, "Mark,
why exactly are you going to Suzhou ?"
An excellent question! I will be spending the next ten months of my life doing
master's thesis research and (hopefully) bettering my Mandarin Chinese skill,
as well as becoming much more adept at comprehending classical Chinese (known
as wenyan 文言). Ideally, I
would like to complete the entire rough draft of my master's thesis by the time
my sojourn in China has finished next July, but that plan is mercurial to say
the least. I will be doing all of this in Suzhou 's
largest university, "Soochow
University
Behold Soochow University's Binglin Library, which looks like it would be right at home in a Star Trek movie
Something entertaining for you, my dear reader, to keep in
mind is that I am not exactly sure what sort of program the fine administration
of the university has decided to shoehorn me into. There are several options
available that I am aware of, from the standard "Chinese language-cultural
courses for foreigners" to slightly more specialized master's student
classes. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about what program I am
being placed into, but I am optimistic that whatever the program is that it
will be useful for furthering my goals.
Since you probably know little to nothing about Suzhou , let me give you
some fun facts about the city, and why I believe I was chosen by the China Scholarship
Council to go there. Suzhou is located in the south of China 's Jiangsu
Province , and is about an hour's train
ride away from Shanghai .
Suzhou is so small, it rarely appears on big maps of China
In Chinese terms, Suzhou is a small city with a population
of approximately 8 million people,1 and is well known
in China for its natural beauty and magnificently upkept gardens, and is thus a
very popular tourist destination. There is an ancient saying in China that goes "As there is paradise in
Heaven, so there are Suzhou and Hangzhou on earth" (上有天堂，下有苏杭). If you are from my hometown of Victoria ,
this may all sound vaguely familiar to you, which it should, because Victoria and Suzhou
are sister cities, both being well-known tourist destinations that have a lot
of natural beauty.
Above: Suzou's Humble Administrator's Garden (拙政园), and Victoria's Butchart Gardens
That is not, however, the only reason that I think I was sent to Suzhou . Suzhou also has a long literary and cultural
history, being at the center of many brand new trends in Chinese literature. Of
particular importance to me is that it was the birthplace of a Ming Dynastye (1366-1644) literati named
Jin Shengtan (金圣叹, 1610-1661), who made
some important changes to a novel called "Tales of the Marshlands,"
or Shuihu Zhuan (水浒传),cutting out large portions of the novel and changing large sections of both
the story and characterization, as well as inserting his own commentary
throughout the novel as a means of teaching young literati how to become more
critical in their reading skills. Jin Shengtan's commentary on the Shuihu Zhuan happens to be the primary subject of my thesis, and so I hope to find something useful related to Jin Shengtan while I reside in his hometown.
A portrait of Jin Shengtan, though it was painted long after Jin died
Regarding the subject matter of this blog, I don't intend
for it to be solely about what happens to me in Suzhou . Being that I'm a big political junkie
- especially when it comes to my favorite past time of reading about American and Canadian politics - I will also post
my thoughts on and reactions to various events in the news both in China and
abroad. Additionally, I'll also post about more academic subject matter that
relates to my thesis, so to anybody who does not enjoy/understand
"academicese," I sincerely apologize in advance.
The typical reaction most people have when reading academic writing
I probably won't be able to post anything for the first few
days of my reaching Suzhou ,
but I plan on keeping a schedule of 2-3 posts per week once I am settled in my
dormitory room. Until then, please feel free to leave any comments/questions
below, and enjoy the semi-relevant song below (listen to the lyrics):
1. The official number is between 4-5 million, but the Chinese government never accounts for the literally millions of migrant workers that illegally come from the countryside to find employment↩
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2. I also decided to use the same naming structure for this blog, in taking the Chinese term for "tales" (zhuan 传, pronounced like "Joo-ahn" for those who cannot read pinyin) and affixed it to the end of
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