China at the Crossroads.
I've never been good at writing titles. In fact, most of the things I write get titled as an afterthought. But when I decided to start blogging about my time in the field, I decided that the title needed to be chosen with some amount of care. After several discarded, ill-fitting attempts, I settled on this one.
Why? Because--I hope--this title speaks to the many things that I want this blog (and my fieldwork) to be about:
A description of the instances and places where ethnic Hui culture and traditional Chinese culture intersect.
An account of urban China at critical point in the country's development.
A documentation of the literal crossroads, highways, skyscrapers, shopping malls, etc. being built daily in China's cities.
These are the subjects I want to capture. These are the literal and metaphorical crossroads I want to describe. Over the next year (thanks to the good people who award and administer Fulbright International Study Grants), I'll try as best I can to bring you, my readers, these stories. I'll blog about my experiences in the field, the cultures I'm observing, and some background/current events stuff, too, probably. It's a journey that I'm excited to embark on. I hope you'll come along.