{"id":462,"date":"2010-09-19T08:38:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T00:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laowaiteacher.wordpress.com\/?p=462"},"modified":"2010-09-19T08:38:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T00:38:20","slug":"culture-and-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2010\/09\/19\/culture-and-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture and Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday evening we were invited by the Mayor’s office to attend the unveiling of a new book by a celebrated author who had spent quite a few years living and writing in France. \u00a0This is a picture of him unveiling his book, “Regard de la Rive Gauche sur la Rive Droite.” <\/em>Of course the book is in Chinese, after all, we are in China. \u00a0After speaking with the author after his presentation (in French of course), Maureen and I were given gifts of his book. \u00a0This book is coming home, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We went to this event with our neighbours who now live in our old apartment across the hall, Lynn and Frank, a couple from Australia. \u00a0While we were at the event we got to meet three teachers from the neighboring He Hai University and more importantly, a great lady we met in September 2006, Linda.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can say without a doubt that going back to Changzhou was indeed like going back home. \u00a0Linda has given us strict instructions that we are not to go play in Changzhou without her – these two ladies are destined to be best friends. \u00a0It takes returning to change from “friends of the moment” to “friendship for life.”<\/p>\n

We didn’t spend all of the evening talking with other laowai. \u00a0We did get to talk with a number of Chinese at the event which was really all about them. \u00a0The event was about the new book by a returning son of Changzhou. \u00a0However, the event was also a celebration of all those sons who are returning to Changzhou from Canada, America and different places in Europe. \u00a0The vice-mayor told us that 1500 Chinese expats have returned to Changzhou. \u00a0We talked with a Chinese man who has a home in Calgary and another man who has a home in Chicago. \u00a0Both are now involved in Changzhou life in a way that benefits everyone.<\/p>\n

At the end of the evening, we were treated to an incredible display of fireworks and then sent on our way with the traditional gift of Mooncakes. \u00a0It was a great evening, one that will be remembered for many years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday evening we were invited by the Mayor’s office to attend the unveiling of a new book by a celebrated author who had spent quite a few years living and writing in France. \u00a0This is a picture of him unveiling … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,33,38,49,58,75,78,100,123,141,154,217],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-changzhou","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-communicate","tag-culture","tag-esl-blog","tag-expats","tag-foreign-teacher","tag-jiangsu","tag-mandarin","tag-moon-cakes","tag-teaching-esl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}