Reflections of a young American adventurer

By Mary Katherine Smith (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-12 10:52

I was 7. We were just finishing dinner when my mom and dad said they had something to tell me. The next thing I recall, the words "moving" and "Hong Kong" were being used in the same sentence.

At that time my world felt like it was being turned upside. Fifteen years later, I realize it was the best move I could ever had made.

The two years I spent living in Hong Kong as a child would mold and shape my interests in China like no other. My adventures had started.

I am no longer a child and I have learned to embrace these adventures. The knock on effect of discovery though is the realization that I have left others behind.

I recently started noticing how most of my friends and family back home had a very vague idea of what life in China was really like.

Their questions were silly to me and I was often surprised how little they knew about the culture and lifestyle here.

I now realize my responsibility to broaden their understanding and appreciation for Chinese culture and lifestyle.

And so it has become a passion and life-long goal of mine to bridge the gap between these two cultures.

To help my friends and family understand more about my life in China and my day-to-day routines, I keep a blog about these adventures - where I go, what I'm doing and my thoughts on living here.

It gives me a chance to share my life with them in a way that is both entertaining and informative. I'd like to think that my writing about the 60th anniversary back in October motivated the reading of a news article or two about the celebration.

I also hope that my post about Chinese Valentine's day allowed Chinese culture to be seen as a closer alternative to its foreign brother than before.

More than anything, I want my articles to provide a glimpse of life here and to help them understand why I find China so fascinating.

I admit it sounds idealistic and perhaps a little naive, but I feel that if a friend reading my blog has a better understanding of why my co-workers knock back drinks every five minutes during mealtimes, then I've done my job.

And if a user happens to read about the Founding of a Republic film on my blog and checks it out, I can be certain I'm doing something right.

Through all my various adventures, I just really want to help different cultures learn more about each other. And whether I am successful or not, I'm sure it will always be an adventure.