jamie doom

I have moved to Sinosplice. I would like to thank John for inviting me over a couple of years ago. It’s hard to believe that it has taken me this long to get here. I took a year and a half break from blogging, but then at the end of July I decided I needed to do it again, and I wanted a place where I could explore and be more creative, and I think Sinosplice is that home, and it seems like a natural fit.

When I arrived in China in the Summer of 2003, I first lived in Haikou, Hainan. I worked there as a volunteer. Haikou does not have that many westerners which, truthfully, is part of the charm. But I was interested in China, and what experiences other people where having there. Up to that point, all my real knowledge of China came from the six outdated books I read before I came. The seventh book was a little dated too but much more valuable. I think it is still the standard for Westerners living in China, it is of course River Town, by Peter Hessler.

After ADSL was installed in my apartment, I began to search the web more earnestly for other voices and experiences. One of the most helpful recources on the web was John’s China Blog List. After a month or so of reading a lot of different web logs I decided to jump in myself and started Doom in China over at motime. It was a perfect set up for me, somebody who is not that web design savy.

Most of the friends I made after that, believe it or not, are either a direct or indirect result of my blog. After reading my blog for a little while, John emailed me and asked me if I wanted to take his teaching position in Hangzhou at Zhejiang University City College (ZUCC). This was before we had ever met. I jumped at the chance to move up to Hangzhou because I had read the weblogs of the other teachers there. Carl, John B., Alf, Greg and Russell all had blogs that they kept updated at that time. After perusing their writings, I thought they all seemed cool and laid back. They must have felt the same way, because even though they really wanted a girl, I was allowed to take John’s teaching position.

l to r Carl, John B, Amanda, Greg, Russell, Alf, Heather, Wilson

After I arrived at ZUCC, I realized that they were all punks, and it’s unwise to ever make assumptions about character or make career moves based on the cursory reading of a few weblogs. I was an idiot. But they all loved me of course,and I guess that’s all that mattered, and I pretended to be everybody’s friend. I also met two Aussies there, Alex and Nate, and we became friends in between arguing about the correct way to speak the English language. I also became friends with one cool Kiwi, Chris. He liked me because I always cheered for the All Blacks whenever they played Rugger against the POHMs. There was another American teacher at ZUCC, forgot his name, but none of us hardly ever saw him because he hid in his room and fellowshiped with the little purple men who lived in his pancreas and built bombs out of Chinese fireworks.

It was an enlightening situation there because we all got along so well. I think the absence of any American women, no offense to any of you, made our coexistence easy. We all argued all the time. We took turns ganging up on each other. Every personal flaw, at ZUCC, was magnified, villified and mocked, but it was a lot of fun.

So now I am back in the States. I work for a small publisher in Asheville, NC. I am applying (again) to a writing fellowship at Stanford. I hope the second time is the charm. I won’t be as excited about getting a rejection note from Tobias Wolff this time. I am working on a book about my life so far. And I am seriously considering going back to China if the Stanford fellowship doesn’t happen. I just want a situation where I have enough free time to write. China can afford me that.

I hope, in the coming months, to be busy here. I plan on sharpening up and throwing down some China stories, short fiction, book reviews, poetry, commentary, advice, humor and doing some experimental writing with my good friend Mike Rhoades. All this will be accompanied with pictures for those of you who can’t read. For those of you who read, hope you’ll come by from time to time. Leave a comment. And hey…smile.