Initially the cause for neglect was the fact that the Chinese government shut down access to blogger from within China. This happened following the 2009 Xinjiang riots when Twitter, Facebook and Youtube all got gfw'd (that is, stuck behind the Great FireWall in local parlance). I was a poor student at the time, and not so eager to pay monthly fees for a VPN connection to lay siege to the wall, so that was the end of it.
Thereafter followed a very busy and stressful two years in my life. As my scholarship money went dry I was simultaneously struggling to finish my MA thesis and find work so I could continue my life in Beijing. It took some hard work, and a lot of hand shaking, but eventually I was working at a large Chinese internet company, managing teams of translators and producing English versions of their Chinese online games. The hours were long, and I was still squeezing in time on the weekends to finish my thesis, but things really seemed to be coming together.
The next crisis came in the form of some tragic family emergencies which coincided with the final deadline for my thesis (hey, if they give you two years, why not use them, right?). I went on leave from work, and drained my bank account while living the US and dealing with all of the above. For those of you who are avid blog readers, interested in medieval literature, or just plain stalking me and my relations, may I suggest that you read the blog of my late cousin, Laurel Amtower. It's also hosted here on Blogger under the name critbritlit. Her death in the summer of 2010 was a devastating blow to the family. I don't like to blog about personal emotional stuff, but I can't pass over the events of that summer without letting you all know that someone very special passed from our midst. Her blog extends back a few years, and chronicles her always original observations on life, teaching, literature, and finally, cancer, the disease that took her life.
I returned to China in the fall of 2010 to find that my previous job no longer existed as such, and I began scrambling for freelance work to replenish the coffers. A few months of no work and abundant worries finally broke late in the year, and suddenly I was living the life I had been dreaming about for years: I was an independent professional translator in a fun and creative industry: computer games!
It is only now that I feel I can look back over the past few years and make sense of what I have been doing during this time, and where I am headed. Furthermore, I feel that a certain amount of leisure and levity has returned to my life, and for me, writing always requires these ingredients to get the juices flowing. This isn't my usual sort of blog entry. I promise not to be so introspective in the future. I just wanted to provide us all, myself included, a segue into the return of my blog: Rehearsing for the big square world!
And now, the big reveal: What is with the name of my blog, anyhow? The line comes from an XTC song called "Playground". It struck me as a good fit for my blog since the Chinese have always conceptualized the world as being square, and I was literally "rehearsing", (read: practicing my Chinese) so I could participate in that big, square world. My blog will probably begin to stray from that original intention. For example, I am currently on vacation in Indonesia, and in response to the encouragement of fellow travelers I have met here, I will probably start blogging about my experiences in Indonesia in addition to those in China. I don't plan to change the name of the blog, however, because I still see it as applicable in other ways. I won't reveal exactly how at the current moment. You'll have to wait for the next major shift in content for that explanation.
Thanks to all those who have tuned in (Made Bayak and Ng Yi Lian mostly!) and given me the encouragement to take this up again!
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