Walking the Path

I was going through The Globe and Mail‘s website this morning and I came across some great Christmas fiction by Johanna Skibsrud author of the Giller Prize-winning The Sentimentalists. Check it out here.

Enjoy
J.

I can’t stop thinking about Canada since I came back from my vacation there. I’ve been reading constantly about the country – I just finished volume 1 of John English’s biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau before that I was reading Harperland and The Book of Negroes. I’ve been listening to CBC Radio constantly.

I’m even re-watching David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network and even though it’s an awesome moving and always worth watching again anyway, I think I’m just doing it because I saw the movie when I was home in Canada.

But despite all this I’m not lonely and I don’t want to go home. I’ve actually never been happier. I’m living at a great place in Shanghai and Betty and I have never been easier. I just want to consume everything I could about Canada right now. Keep in touch with everything about the country I can at the moment.

It’s not loneliness that driving this interest. I think it’s just something that happens when you live outside of your home country for a number of years. You start to see it differently. I was interested in Canada when I lived there. I followed the news but now I’m looking at it as an outsider now on a cultural level.

And I’m liking everything that I’m hearing. I spent most of today downloading music by Canadian bands – Wintersleep, Tegan & Sara, Berson Lakes, Owen Pallett and Ohjibou. I listen to CBC Radio 3 podcasts everyday.

I’m looking forward to reading the 2010 Giller Prize winner The Sentimentalists.

I’ve never been prouder to be Canadian but I have no desire at all to go home. I’m enjoying China too much and I don’t think it’d be a wise move back with the current job market hanging by a very thin thread, but it’s still a million times better than the US. Work is also going really well.

So life is really really good. And therefore I don’t think I’m home sick and I don’t think I need to leave China. I just think Canada is a dynamic and culturally enriching country and I love being Canadian.

J.

Last night I attended a CanCham event for the charity Free the Children. It was a talk by the group’s founder Craig Keilburger and to sum it up in one sentence it was simply inspiring.

Keiburger spoke about how he came to found the organization and how he came to develop his philosophy of reaching out to others that he entitled ”Me to We” and how that philosophy can be used in corporate CSR. But you could tell that the audience wasn’t thinking about CSR after Keilburger’s speech but more about how they could cause change themselves. Keilburger is like a short, white Barack Obama.  One lady was even crying after the speech and you could see that everyone else was really inspired.

For me, it was a good boost to my feelings that I should keep pursuing my personal goals. I find myself falling and rising emotionally minute-to-minute based on responses I get from prospective employers as well as just general fear about my unknown future after next Monday. Last night’s event was like a flat plateau that I could take a rest on for awhile and let myself know that I am still going on the right path. I’m making the right career choice for me and I should continue with it.

Me to We: the Book

I’ve also been reading Keilburger’s book Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World. And it’s helping me to maintain that calming plateau feeling.  I know it sounds corny, but I probably can do better on job interviews and go farther if I stay calm. If I let emotion take over then there is less chance for me to demonstrate what I am the best at and why I should be hired for a certain job.  So I’m going to do whatever I can to stay calm. Getting angry or letting depression take hold of me won’t do me any good at all. So I’m going to keep reading the book for however long it helps me.

But besides the calming and inspiring factors, Me to We is really well written and it’s just fun to read. When I finish next week, I’m going to try to relax at home and this is one of the books I am going to be spending a lot of time with.

Give the Me to We philosophy a try yourself.

J.

One of my favourite new followers on Twitter is the Canadian publisher, House of Anansi Press (@houseofanansi). What I like about this corporate tweeter is it isn’t just trying to drive people to buy their books. The publisher is actually adding value with its messages. 

An example is when they posted the link to the 2008 CBC Massey Lecture podcasts. Anansi publishes the transcripts of these lectures that are broadcast on CBC Radio every year. And since this year’s presenting is the Canadian author Margaret Atwood (probably the most famous of our female authors) and her lecture topic is the concept of debt in a year when we’re facing the greatest recession in 25 years, the book was already doing well. Anansi didn’t need to post up the free podcasts — you’d think this might actually undermine their sales (I for one won’t buy the book, if I can get the podcasts instead).

But the marketers at Anansi knew that if people could try out the book by listening to the lectures for free, they might invest money in something they enjoy. Those people who enjoy the book might try out other Anansi titles and maybe even spread the word to their friends. That’s good marketing as far as Anansi is concerned. 

Me, besides the links to some great lecturers, I’m just happy Anansi isn’t gumming up my twitter feed with crap.

J.

I’m on the bit of a Canadian literature kick at the moment. I’m currently reading Rawi Hage’s Cockroach. It’s an extremely dark novel but still feels like Canada — Canada in the middle of a Montreal winter but still Canada. I’m only about 30 pages into it so I can’t really say more than that about it at this point. I’m a little sad that it didn’t win the Giller Prize this week but I am looking forward to Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce.

Afterwards I’ve got plans to read books by Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields — plus a very thick biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. I am not exactly sure why I’m on such a reading path right now. I’m not homesick, it’s probably because I’ve been hanging around so many Canadians lately and remembering what a great country Canada can be. If you’re looking for good fiction check them out.

J.

Douglas Coupland

“I grew up thinking the Americans lost the War of 1812, and it turns out there’s this creeping revisionism happening. Americans are saying maybe we didn’t lose. Maybe we won it,” 

- Douglas Coupland on the release of his new art installation about the War of 1812

Rememberance Day was on Tuesday in Canada and a lot of people have been saying that World War I will be forgotten when the last veteran dies. But all the veterans from the War of 1812 are dead and now people are starting to revise the events that actually happened. 

I’ve always been a history buff and changing history to suit a person’s/organization’s own purposes has never sat well with me. That’s why I’m so happy that one of my favourite writers/visual artists Douglas Coupland released his toy soldiers installation in downtown Toronto at the beginning of the month. It’s protecting history as it really happened without throwing it in everyone’s face but still being out there for everyone to see.

The installation also has a real kitsch factor to it and it makes a clear statement about who won the war. That’s a better use of money than some abstract sculpture which nobody can agree on what it is.

I am definitely looking out for it next time I am in Toronto.

J.

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted anything here and besides the commitments I mentioned in my last post I haven’t had much to say really. The last month has been pretty quiet and mostly focused on work. That is until last week.

I had the opportunity last Tuesday to meet with the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty at Shanghai’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA).  It was great to meet the head of the government of my home province — it’s one of the odd opportunities that you get living aboard. If I was at home, it’d be very difficult to meet with the Premier or any government minister, but when you’re one of the few Ontarians in Shanghai, the opportunity is very easy. 

My actually meeting with McGuity was rather short — about 15 seconds. I was able to shake his hand and he asked me where I was from and where I went to school and then moved on to the next person.  I didn’t really make an attempt to chat with him after either. I had other people that I need to get in touch with, some for business and some were friends who I only seem to see at CanCham events.  This chatting kept me at MoCA after the premier had left. As I was chatting with the six or seven remaining guests I was really surprised to be handed a giftbag by Richard Choi, CanCham’s executive director. The contents of the bag probably cost about CDN$50 or so, but it had great significance to any Canadian:

• A Home Hardware 2009 charity calendar
• A Canadian Tire reusable grocery bag and coupons
• A Hockey Night in Canada t-shirt and cap
• A Vinyl Cafe CD
• Last week’s issue of Maclean’s
• A Ontario pin and umbrella
• A Coffee Crisp chocolate bar

At first I was really happy just have the Coffee Crisp — you can’t get it anywhere else but in Canada. But later when I went through the package it’s the Vinyl Cafe CD (I’ve now become a fan) and the Hockey Night in Canada clothing. They just give me that feeling of being at home when I miss it — which seems to be happening more and more these days.

They’ve also sparked some conversation among my Canadian friends. When I met a few of them for dinner last week, my Coach’s Corner cap started a conversation about where we can watch NHL hockey in the city.  Then we started to discuss the upcoming Hello Canada street fair this weekend.  It’ll be great to see a little bit of Canada in the middle of downtown Shanghai.

And best of all it made me forget about my homesickness.

J.

Last Sunday, I attended the Glamour Bar’s Blue Dragon literary event with Canadian writers Rawi Hage and Madeleine Thien.  Hawi was reading from his new book Cockroach  and Thien read from her 2006 book Certainty.

I really enjoyed myself at the event but I had some issues with the way the event was organized. I was really surprised that only 13 people showed up. I know that CanLit is sort of considered Canada’s great little secret but still — this was disappointing. The Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, the Montreal litfest that brought the authors over, could have done a better job promoting the event. I wonder if they even mentioned this to the Canadian consulate in Shanghai (I didn’t see any consulate staff there). Blue Metropolis could’ve promoted the event through the Consulate’s database of registered Canadians in the city.  I found out about the event on Shanghaiist, but the only other places I saw the event listed were SmartShanghai.com and the Glamour Bar’s own website.

My other disappointment was the fact that only Thien’s Certainty as well as books by the Australian moderator were available for purchase. You could order Hage’s first book, De Niro’s Game (which I did), but Cockroach was unavailable even for order.  I ended up turning to Amazon.com to get it, which I normally don’t mind doing, but when an author gives a reading I like to purchase their books at the venue so that I can have them sign and to show my appreciation for their work.

I guess that is my biggest gripe about the event I felt that the writers weren’t appreciated there. From both readings I can tell that these are great books, but did anyone else notice that? When I had Thien sign my copy of Certainty her face lit right up — I didn’t see anyone else get their books sign and Hage left right after the event finished. I am happy that I can make somebody’s day by doing that but in a case like this I don’t like to be the only one.

J.

Damage in Myanmar (Source: IHT)

Yesterday I read an article on the aftermath of last spring cyclone in Myanmar that really touched me.

It mentioned the destruction and the more than 100,000 people dead, but it was these lines that stuck in my head:

there are the stories of wandering ghosts, whose cries for help can be heard at night in haunted places that no villager dares to enter.

Relief after being long delayed is now getting to the people, but what about their psychological needs? There is some obviously unrecognized damage there. How are they going to be fixed? Is the government or the medical system going to do it? Do they even care? Or is this something people are going to have to slow themselves?

I have a feeling that it is the latter is the solution to the problem. The same can be said of the suffers of the Sichuan earthquake. Assistance has been given to deal with the physical losses but what about the suffers’ mental problems?  Maybe those who showed signs of trauma at the time, but what if the trauma didn’t surface at the time but a year from now when people wake up with constant nightmares of watching their colleagues and classmates crushed all around them?

I thought maybe that the Chinese government would invest in psychological care after the earthquake but they haven’t. But investing in care for the people of the earthquake would have a lasting effect to all the drunks, drug addicts and abused wives that fall through the cracks. Many of these people end up in jail when they could be getting help in a mental institution or maybe even better served with medication and regular outpatient care. That would be such a big savings to the Chinese government and maybe help China get closer to the socialist paradise that it has always wanted to be.

Just my two cents.

J.

Recently I’ve really been enjoying two Canadian literary blogs, Seen Reading and the Quillblog. Seen Reading is about what one writers sees Canadians reading while the other is from a respected Canadian literary journal. All the books they discuss sound so great that I just want to go out and buy as many Canadian authors as possible. But Shanghai isn’t known for having much CanLit. Plus even if it did, books are expensive and I would just spend all my money on them I already have too many books on my shelves. So it got me looking at what’s there and making a book list for the next month or so. Here it is:

1. Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctorine
2. Ian McEwan’s Atonement
3. John Updike’s Terrorist
4. Jiang Rong’s Wolf Totem
5. Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys

You’ll notice that there’s only one China book there. I’ve kind of had my fill of China topics for now. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I deal with different aspects of the country everyday at my job or the fact that I spent most of my day writing an editorial for our company newsletter on the Olympics, but I need a break from it for awhile. Right now, I’m going to finish up some projects I’ve got in the pipeline (a book review of the memoir A Year Without Made in China for Lost Laowai and one on Jan Wong’s Beijing Confidential for That’s Beijing) then I am going to take a rest from China for a week or so. After that I should be ready to come back and tackle it again.

J.