Four Years of Living, Learning, Teaching, and Becoming Half-Chinese in Suzhou, China
| Home Page ABOUT THE BOOK Why a Memoir? Meaning of the Title Book Format What/Where Is Suzhou? Why Suzhou Is So Fitting for This Book Where Can I Buy The Book? SELECTED PREVIEWS Chapter 5: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Chapter 20: A Precious Belt Chapter 29: A City Shuts Down UPDATES SINCE 2006 Our Story Suzhou's Story EXTRA PHOTOS Related to the Book Suzhou 2001-2006 Suzhou Since 2006 ABOUT: The Author My Next Book My SuzhouPlus Website |
 
 UPDATES -- OUR STORIES SINCE 2006
Life, of course, goes on, and with it comes the inevitable changes. Here's a January 2010 update on our lives and those of some of our friends and family whom you met in CHINA, HEART AND SOUL. Ping Ping, Chen Chen and I still live on Manhattan's Upper West Side. We had not been back to Suzhou since the summer of 2006 until we returned for a six-month visit that began in May 2009. Just weeks before leaving, Ping Ping had taken her oath of citizenship; she has become an American citizen, traveling on an American passport. She also learned how to drive a car (not really a necessity around Manhattan) and now carries a New York State driver's license. As if to reinforce her citizenship status, the state court system called her for jury duty in early December 2009. Chen Chen is a permanent (green card) resident now planning to attend a hairstyling school here in New York City. Ping Ping's parents continue to live year-round in our Jin Li Yuan apartment, the one whose purchase and furnishing are described in CHINA, HEART AND SOUL. They made their first trip to the United States (and their first outside of China) in July 2008, returning home in January 2009. During their American stay, we took them to Hawaii (the Big Island and Maui) and San Francisco; they also visited Vermont. Ping Ping's brother, Jian Ming, has since married; his bride hails from Hengjing, a small town just southwest of Suzhou. They have a son whose Chinese name, Kai Wen, was chosen because it sounds like the English name they selected first: Kevin. Mao Wei, husband of Ping Ping's cousin Li Li, is still teaching Chinese at Suzhou #9 School, the city's premier high school. His daughter, Mao Mou Tian (Mou Mou) attends #9 School as well. Xu Lei has moved on from his principal position at Suzhou #26 School to become the Communist Party Representative at Suzhou #6 School, located just a block east of the famed Humble Administrator's Garden. The #6 School is a "theme school," specializing in students with interests and abilities in theater, music, and the arts. He and his family recently moved into a modern new apartment complex located near Dushu Lake, a fast-growing new suburban section of the Suzhou Industrial Park. Chen Qing Rong continues as an English teacher at Suzhou #1 School; she and her family have lived for several years in a new apartment not far from the Humble Administrator's Garden. Her daughter is studying accounting in a local university with hopes of attending an American college for further business studies. Cha Wei Cang has left the teaching profession for a position as a Vice President of Human Resources at the two-year-old Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Center in the Suzhou Industrial Park. Yang Bei Lei remains retired from English teaching, but she enjoyed her visit to the United States in 2009 to visit her daughter, a student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Linda Zhou succeeded Xu Lei as principal of Suzhou #26 School. |