I've decided to start to write this blog for two reasons. Firstly, to keep in touch and give you (my friends and family) some snapshots of my new life in Beijing, and secondly, to try to be your eyes to look at China up close. I don't mean this in an patronising way, simply I believe that although China's rise to prominence has grabbed much media attention, views of China tend to be heavily politicised through wariness of this new, recently awakened beast. I find that in the West there is often blunt criticism of Chinese policy without taking into consideration where China has come from, or simply put, that China isn't a Western first world country. The Chinese people already accept due to this, as any other developing country, there are many problems and the country still has far to go. What is refreshing is the pride that I have seen in people who now see the new vigour and strength of their country as something that they can work hard for.
I hope that you will approach what I write here with an open mind and let me know what you think about it (carefully). I too am going to go discover China, because I don't yet understand it either.
More simply:
I'm hoping to push past stereotypes such as this:
To show you that China is a bit more like this nowadays:
(Shanghai skyline)
good start to your blog. look forward to reading more!
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