About Little Roots in China

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”, say Lao Tzu.

扎根 (zhá gēn) – Establishing roots. That’s what it’s called when one tries to immerse in a new environment or culture.

This is in fact not my first blog, or my writings about China. Looking back, I found that over 50 of my posts in my personal blog detailed life in China in 2011-2013 (Now hosted under tab “Life in China before Kids”). Unfortunately there were no blogs back in 2004, otherwise I would probably have also attempted some form of personal journalism when I first moved to Shanghai to work. Sadly, all I have left of those days are grainy images from a very nifty Fuji digital camera, and gigabytes of memories of myself in drunken stupor. Ah, those Shanghai nights.

But now blogs of experiences aplenty, and I thought I’d used mine to document my personal account of getting to know China – a country I’ve long held a deep fascination for, and one in which I have roots in. After all, it took my grandfather three tries before he succeeded in crossing the South China Seas from Hainan Island in the early 1930s. If it weren’t for him, my existence would have been very different, if at all. (Read the story here)

Like most foreigners, I initially found China very difficult to appreciate. But having lived there now three times in three different cities (Shanghai, Tianjin and now Beijing) and travelled across the country over the past 15 years, I often find myself ensnared in episodes where I begin to understand and appreciate – more and more – why China operates the way it does.

China is a country that came out of decades of impoverishment, a country built to scale, a people deep in culture and patriotism, armed with a language so rich you can’t stop learning it. The more you peel of this onion, the more magic you discover of this incredible country. A country in progress, a country with so much hope and dreams to uncover.

Together with my husband who shares the same interest, we have travelled all across China, by air, by road and rail several times over. Some of our favourite travels in China: Ganzi and Kangding 康定 in Sichuan, Zhongdian 中甸 in Yunnan, Kashgar 喀什 in Xinjiang, Changbaishan 长白山 in Heilongjiang, Zhangye 张掖 and Dunhuang 敦煌 in Gansu. The big cities too are quite stunning – one crazier than the other.

But apart from our China travels, I’d very much like to share this time about China, from my children’s eyes. Our boys, born in 2014 and 2017, are hybrids from two countries – Singapore and Switzerland. We speak English, Chinese and French at home. Safe to say, the children have a lot of juggling to do at home and at school!

Some quirks about our own nations – Swiss and Singaporeans are well known for our strong GDP per capita, unbeatable healthcare systems and enviable passports. That is all true, but also, our countries are so small, our perception of the complexities of cities and provinces is pretty limited (the Swiss – with their 26 cantons – would argue this, understandably!). Our countries – wedged between big brother countries – have to remain somewhat neutral. Given the influence from neighbouring countries, our citizens are born into multilingualism. Above all, our countries are really just used to having little global attention. All that probably makes us so fascinated with a monolith like China (many argue this too!).

So here is me giving up a bit of personal privacy for a chance to engage readers on a journey with us. And by the way, just due to time constraints, I foresee more documenting on Instagram (little.roots.in.china) than on a blog post. Follow me there if you’re bored of my writing. Still early days so let’s see how this thing flies.

Thank you for reading!

Junice