“Do the things that scare you but feel right”
Last Friday I headed towards the Guangzhou Library in the modern Zhujiang New Town district to participate in the 3rd Women in Business Forum. I’d just heard about the event the day before at Guangzhou Stuff and decided to go. The event included four inspirational speakers, but the presentation I loved the most was Meera Saujani’s. Meera graduated from Oxford (only because her high school teacher advised her to apply, she thought it would be impossible to get in), worked in advertising and then decided to travel the world for one year in 2011. After the amazing trip she went back to the UK to work for the BBC, but…
Visiting Chaozhou
Chaozhou is located in the easternmost part of Guangdong province and it has a population of 2.6 million people. It’s easy to reach from Guangzhou or Shenzhen by 高铁 (high-speed rail). The local language, Chaozhou dialect (or Teochew) is very different from Mandarin Chinese and I found it difficult to understand what older people were saying even when they used Mandarin Chinese. According to friends and readers online, eating is the main event when visiting Chaozhou. Especially seafood, meatballs made of beef and different kinds of snacks. As are pretty much all smaller cities in China, Chaozhou is a chaotic place with motorcycles everywhere. It seemed like all traffic regulations…
Getting Married in China: Combining the two cultures
Being in an international relationship is all about making compromises and respecting each others cultures. We wanted to honor our backgrounds on our wedding day, complemented with our personal tastes. Having both Finnish and Chinese traditions on our big day will also hopefully make our family and guests feel comfortable and happy. What we personally don’t like about modern Chinese weddings is that how it’s become an occasion to show off your family’s wealth. I don’t want rows of golden bracelets on my wrists or line of expensive cars for transport. Instead we want our wedding to be truly something we like, with some compromises to keep the family satisfied…
Living with Chinese in-laws…or not?
I’ve been now living with my Chinese in-laws for a year and reading Jocelyn’s recent blog post inspired me to write more what it is like to live with your Chinese husband’s parents. Jocelyn writes that she is happy in staying in the family house and the village that surrounds it, but honestly speaking I wouldn’t be able to do that my self. Of course there are many good reasons for all to live together. You don’t have to pay rent for example that can be very expensive especially if you live in the center of a big city like Guangzhou. Moving to the city would make my husband’s daily…