Newspaper Article in the Trib

One reason I haven't written about the Chinese New Year in detail on my blog is that I wrote a piece about the holiday for publication in the media. I was originally planning on posting it here today, since February 6th is the last day of the Spring Festival, if I didn't hear back from any of the newspapers or magazines.

As luck would have it, I finally got two responses, one from a newspaper in Pittsburgh and one from The China Beat blog. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review published the article in print in the Livings section (page D4) and online this morning, Monday, February 6th. The China Beat will publish a slightly better version (the editor and I made some much-needed changes) of the article with pictures tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7th.

The Trib offered to pay for the article, but I'm not allowed to accept any type of outside payment while on the Fulbright fellowship, and so, following the advice of the Fulbright Program Officer in Beijing, requested that they donate the money to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The Trib didn't include any pictures with the online version of the article, so I'm going to post them with their captions below. I just heard that the printed version did include pictures!  Here is the link to the online version of the newspaper article in the Trib.

The best part about getting the article published? Telling my neighbors, especially my research participants (the ones who I interviewed for the article), the good news. "REALLY?" Brother Guo exclaimed when I told him. I showed him the article that was going to be published. In English. "What is this? I can't understand any of this foreign language!" he complained loudly. He sighed, pushed away the article, and crossed his arms in obvious frustration.

The next day I gave him, and the rest of the people cited in the article, a version I translated into Chinese, along with the English version and pictures attached (I did omit the part about how native English speakers earn 100-150 yuan an hour). 

Everyone in Old Nanjing is thrilled. Everyone knows that one of my best friends from high school, Megan, is visiting at the end of April, and requested that she bring along a couple copies of the printed newspaper article with her. "I can't believe we're in a newspaper in America!" Big Sister Chongyang laughed, "We haven't made it into any newspapers in China yet, but we're in an American newspaper! I'm glad they ended up not publishing any pictures of me, I'm so ugly!" She is gorgeous, by the way.

To tell the truth, when I first started conducting field research in October, I honestly never thought I would share my findings or articles with my participants, despite the advice in my ethnographic and qualitative research design textbooks to openly share all publications with the community. I'm not sure why, but I think my reasoning partially stemmed from a fear that they would reject my ideas or criticize me, and partially from a bad excuse to myself that they wouldn't have an interest if it was in English. Now I'm four months into my research, and sharing my findings, and now a media publication, with my participants is just as important as conducting the research itself. I don't mind translating my work into Chinese for them and I couldn't imagine it any other way. I've finally realized that this kind of sharing, especially the rare opportunity to share a publication (no matter how small) is where the real joy in field work can be realized.

These are the pictures and their captions that I sent to the features editor at the Trib for the article.

The Auntie that sells tofu on the back of a freight tricycle in the old city of Nanjing. Here she is at my doorstep, measuring the weight of a bag of tofu for me.  Auntie rides down the winding alleys of Old Nanjing that are too narrow for vehicles several times a day to emphatically announce her price of tofu at 500 grams for 1.5 yuan (that's about a pound for 25 cents). Her voice penetrates my walls and wakes me up every morning. She was back today (February 6th), as today ends the 15-day Spring Festival, and asked me again whether or not I had returned home to celebrate the New Year. 

Grandma Wang's second-hand clothing shop is a converted one-story laofangzi, a traditional Chinese home located in Sarah Tynen's neighborhood in Old Nanjing, her field site for researching urban redevelopment and socio-economic divisions. 

Although business is slow during the month surrounding the Spring Festival holiday, Grandma Wang and Sarah Tynen find ways to pass the time together by sitting and chatting, greeting the occasional customer, bargaining for prices, and snacking on black sesame cakes (Grandma Wang's favorite candy).

A young boy eats a sesame stick at the entrance to his laofangzi, a traditional courtyard-style home that is now dilapidated and shared by several families. 

One of Sarah Tynen's neighbors decorates her doorpost with chunlian, or Spring couplets, a type of Chinese poetry wishing for fortune and happiness, a popular Chinese New Year decoration.

Big Brother Guo smokes and prepares the New Year's Eve dinner at the same time.

Sarah Tynen learning how to make spring rolls at Big Brother Guo's house, a traditional New Year's holiday snack. Making dumplings and spring rolls is a New Year tradition because the shape resembles a wallet, which symbolizes good fortune for the new year. Eating them brings you good fortune too. 

Big Brother Guo and Sarah Tynen with the extravagant New Year's Eve dinner of meatball and egg soup, pig's tongue, chicken feet, spring rolls, spinach with peanuts and creamed corn with chicken and mushrooms.

Baijiu bottles left on a neighbor's window sill after the New Year's celebrations. Baijiu is an awful tasting distilled grain, traditional Chinese liquor, usually 120 proof, that is drunk lavishly at most New Year's celebrations (except for ours).

Auntie Li selling kabobs (she requested that her face not be included).

My roommate Little Sister Xie Rui in our room at her computer, chatting with friends and watching American TV shows, such as Prison Break, the Big Bang Theory, and Gossip Girl, online.

Big Sister Chongyang and her 5-year old daughter, Zaozao, make spring rolls for Chinese New Year.

Although the faded markings in the red rectangle that read yibanqian, meaning "already relocated" were placed on this building 2 years ago, the family living here has not been compensated or forced to move yet. The red decorations on the door post are spring couplets, a unique style of Chinese poetry wishing for fortune and happiness, a popular Chinese New Year decoration. Some families also will move into evicted houses if they are not demolished immediately.

Big, red Chinese characters telling residents to banqian, or "relocate", tag houses marked for demolition. This home, still occupied by a family, is decorated with traditional Chinese New Year decorations on the door post that wish for happiness and good fortune in the new year. The four characters in the red rectangle box at the top say rui qi ying men, which means "fill the house full of good luck." The big gold character in the red square says fu, which means "fortune." Putting decorations on the doorpost invites good fortune into the home for the whole family. 

This family's home has been marked twice. The two red faded Chinese characters in the circle say "relocate", while the bright red characters in the rectangle say "already relocated." The family has not been forced to move out yet. The white propaganda poster on the left side reads, "Expedite Construction, Bring Benefit to the People, Take the Interests of the Whole into Account, Develop Together."

Torn and faded propaganda posters are scattered on walls across the neighborhood with various slogans encouraging residents to move out as quickly as possible. The one on the left reads, "Expedite the Speed of the Eviction Process, Construct a Historical and Cultural [City]" ("city" has been torn off the bottom). The one of the right reads, "Relocate According to the Law, Be Civilized and Serve, [A Public and Transparent Operation Welcomes Surveillance]" (the last part was torn off, I saw the rest of it on another identical poster).

The red banqian character is tagged on both sides of my neighbor's door, while the family stubbornly maintains the Chinese New Year tradition to decorate the door with the fu character, a traditional and popular decoration that invites fortune to the home in the new year.

Demolition in my neighborhood, which is located right next to the ancient city wall, which is visible in the background.

 Stay tuned tomorrow for the China Beat article!