In September, 2014, I set out to post a weekly blog entry during the school year about some of my experiences and impressions of China. Now the school year is winding down. In a few weeks, I’ll stop posting about China as regularly. I’ve tried to stay true to my own experience of China and Chinese culture(s). After the year’s posts are complete, I’ll occasionally revisit some entries to update them or clarify them. I may expand some or delete others as my experiences and knowledge change. Near the end of a year of exploring China and its many facets, I’m almost as puzzled by its vastness as I was at the year’s start, and just as intrigued as ever. Early in my attempts to set some impressions on paper, I remembered a Chinese folk tale that some of my Chinese students had told me, about a frog and a turtle:
The frog lives at the bottom of a well. The well supplies all the nourishment and beauty she needs. From her vantage point, it’s possible to see a small disk of sky. This is what she knows of the world above. One day, a large turtle happens to hear the frog croaking as he passes by the top of the well. He stops to chat. The frog invites the turtle to climb down the well to share in the bounty she has found there, but the opening is too small for the turtle’s shell.
The turtle then tries to describe to the frog some of what he has seen—wide expanses of sky stretching to far horizons, a sea so broad and deep that it maintains its level despite the most massive floods or droughts. The turtle invites the frog to climb out and travel with him to view this wider world. The frog considers, then decides to remain in the security of the well, enjoying a more predictable life, viewing the sky from the well’s bottom.
I like to think that, like the turtle, I’ve seen a bit of ocean during a fairly long life so far. However, I’m aware that, like the frog, I can still see only parts of a larger sky—my views have been colored by my culture, my “American well,” and the times during which I’ve lived.
Most Americans and Chinese I know tend to view the world from different wells, shaped by our respective cultures, our personal and cultural histories. My aim with this year’s set of “China W(a/o)nderings” has been to show the small disk of sky that I can see, perhaps to broaden its edges a little, and to nourish conversations that may over time broaden the edges of other wells, too.
Jinny's Occasional Poems 