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I'm just an undercover sister
So don't try to mess with me, mister
Just cuz my Hanyu sucks
doesn't mean you can bully Canucks

I've seen different things in Beijing
As I write this, I'm aging
Chinese eat exotic foods
depending on their different moods

Scorpion skewers and donkey meat
and oh so yummy chicken feet.
silkworms, dogs and frogs like the French
dogs and crawly things with stench.

The Chinese have their own quirks
when I find out, I'll tell you the perks
Some people here cough up and spit phlegm,
I find it hard to live like them.

When I say "ni hao", they don't reply,
Including that friendly Comrade Lai
When I am old, I'll do Tai-chi,
but meanwhile they can't censor me!

The Elderly

I went to a big Beijing park recently called Tiantan. So many older seniors go there early in the morning for their excercise and othe leisure activities such as Chinese chess, knitting and Chinese music! Oh, the music they play with the Chinese Er-hu (and some other ones I don't know the names of) are amazing. Then they sing too. Crowds gather around them, especially tourists. There is a special music called Jingju with a female vocal part and sometimes, the men sing it, because in the past they performed the music like that. I was so surprised to see so many of them congregate there as I had to pay an entrance fee. but supposedly, if they pay 50 kuai, they have access to all the parks in Beijing 365 days a year!

A Chinese friend brought me with along with her Christian group to visit a senior's home in a poor village just outside Beijing. They used a couple of old dirty rooms in the village and created living space for the 10 odd abandoned seniors in the area. They seemed to be lonely, but a couple of them are so full of vitality. This old woman told us that she takes her daily strolls every morning, even in snow and sleet. Most of them used to be farmers when they were younger.

Being A Foreign-raised Chinese in China

China is a country entirely different from North America. NA is a place made up of immigrants while in most Asian countries, most of the citizens are native. They perceive foreigners ("lao wai"s) to be homogenous too. In the Canadian government there are too few non-caucasian workers, which is why they recently implemented the equal opportunity program for employees. If you think being Asian in Canada makes it hard to find a job, try China. If you are raised abroad and want to work in English, you have it made. You look Asian, so you can't speak English properly. They want their English teachers to have blond hair and blue eyes, because those are the only people who can teach English properly. And they want Americans. Time to consider changing my citizenship. . .