Bad China Day

For every China blog there is at least one blog post about Bad China Day so here we go! Bad China Day is the day when you google “i hate china”, “i hate chinese people”, “i hate chinese” and “hate china”, all of which have been in the top 10 keywords list this Autumn.

It’s the day when you rant over my blog post 5 Reasons To Hate China from 2010. It’s also the day when you are looking for the next possible plane ticket back home.

The thing is, I think I have never have a real Bad China Day. Readers and friends, do you remember me having a BCD?  What I’m certain of is that there have never been a day when I would have wanted to leave China for good. I’ve been in a Chinese hospital for 10 days receiving terrible health care and I didn’t want to leave China.

The closest thing to BCD I’ve had must be those days in summer 2010 after coming back from holiday in Finland. The new semester haven’t started yet (I was studying at Guangzhou university a the time) and all I did was stay at home. I didn’t want to go out because I felt my every step was followed by numerous stares. That was literally true because I was the only foreigner in the urban village, like an animal in a zoo.

There are many things I don’t like about China. Staring, asking questions or giving advice on private matters, peculiar internet… While writing this sentence right now I even had to take a moment to think of those nasty sides of China. I’ve just had too many Great China Days recently to even remember all the things I kind of hate in China.

So why I’m not having Bad China Days? I think a big part of that lies in my ability to manage my daily life in Chinese. If you don’t speak Chinese China comes much much harder. It’s hard to get things done when you don’t have a common language with most of the local people. I understand that many come here short-term and if they want to stay in the bubble that time, it’s completely fine. But staying in China for years and years without speaking even elementary level Chinese? I just don’t know how they do it.

It’s been a year and four months since I was in Finland the last time. I have no idea when I can visit home again, hell, I don’t even know how I’m going to eat after May (when the financial support for students from the Finnish government comes to an end)!

But I know this, I’m going to do everything I can to stay in China and have as many Great China Days as I can!