Name : Katherine or Katya

姓名：凯瑟琳

Country of Origin : USA

国籍：美国

Occupation : Educator

职业：教师

Years in China : 11

在华居住时间：11 年

How did your journey in China begin?

你的中国之旅是怎样开始的？

That is not as easy a question as it seems.

这个问题很难回答。

— In hindsight, “big” is a relative term, since we considered them big, but most of them had a population smaller than Xiamen does now. Still, I was always drawn to cities.

* 小时候是不是每次去一个新的大城市，都会说总有一天我会住在那里？

——如今看来，“大”是相对的，只是我们认为它很大，但大多数城市的人口都比现在的厦门少。尽管如此，我总是被这些城市所吸引。

* Was it my first time in Chinatown in New York City? Where I bought a black qipao and a Canto-pop album by Leslie Cheung (张国荣)?

— I had no clue at the time, wearing it for choir & band performances, as well as in my senior pictures, that I’d end up here. And the album? Didn’t know what language it was until years later, but I still hear songs from it in restaurants from time to time.

* 是我第一次去纽约唐人街的时候吗？黑色的旗袍和张国荣的粤语专辑是在哪里买的？

——我穿着这件旗袍参加合唱团和乐队，还穿着它拍毕业照。当时我怎么都不会想到，我会来到中国。多年后我才知道这张专辑唱的是粤语，现在餐馆里依然能听到专辑里的歌曲。

* Was it when I first studied Mandarin?

— That was at the University of Hull in the UK during my undergraduate degree. They offered Passport Languages, where you had a once-a-week evening class. Only 4 of the 20+ people who started the class finished the year: Me, a French-Born Chinese guy, and 2 British sisters (who spoke Cantonese as a heritage language, and wanted to learn Mandarin, plus reading & writing). I still try to find that teacher online to thank her and tell her where I ended up.

* 是我第一次学普通话的时候吗？

——那时。我正在英国赫尔大学读本科。学校有开“语言通关”课，一周一次，都在晚间上课。刚开始有 20 多人上这门课，最后只有 4 人坚持到期末：我，一个在法国出生的中国人，还有两个英国姐妹（她们会说粤语，想学习普通话，以及阅读和写作）。我仍在尝试从网上搜寻当年的老师，感谢她，告诉她我来中国了。

* Was it when I knew for certain I would be coming to China and started preparing?

— First, investigating the cities I could find schools in and settling on Xiamen. How? Through unscientific polling of every Chinese acquaintance I had in the USA. Every time Xiamen was mentioned, I’d hear: Oh, what a lovely city.” Second, practicing Mandarin again with a language partner, after 8 years of doing nothing but write 谢谢 from time to time.

* 是在我确定我会来中国并开始准备的时候吗？

——首先，我筛选出了有大学的城市，最终确定厦门。我是怎么做的？我收集了认识的每一位美国华人的意见。每次提到厦门，我都会听到：“哇，多么有活力的城市啊。”其次，我要和语伴再次练习普通话，因为这 8 年来我啥也没做，只是时不时练习写汉字“谢谢”。

* Was it the first day I stepped foot in China?

— That was Shanghai, August 1, 2010. I went to the Shanghai Museum that afternoon, loved it, although was convinced the nice young man following me around to “practice English” was actually doing a tea scam. He wasn’t, he truly just wanted to practice and discovered people were less likely to run away in museums. The second day, I spent at the World Expo, almost fainting in the queue, helping many students with their summer English homework, and gaining one brilliant pen pal.

* 是我踏上中国大地的第一天吗？

——2010 年 8 月 1 日，那时我在上海。那天下午我去了上海博物馆，我很喜欢这个博物馆。我遇到了一个年轻人，一直跟着我，说是要“练习英语”，但我觉得他是茶馆派来的“茶托儿”。实际上他并不是“茶托儿”，他真的只是想练习英语，他还发现人们在博物馆里跑不了（所以我不得不跟他对话）。第二天，我在世博会，排队的时候差点晕过去，我还帮很多学生完成暑期英语作业，结识了一位才华横溢的笔友。

* Was it when I arrived in Xiamen, my home ever since?

— August 5, 2010. It was originally a temporary commitment, in case I hadn’t liked China. Here I am writing this, more than a decade later, from the same city. Clearly, I liked it.

* 是在我到达厦门并且把厦门当成家的时候吗？

— 2010 年 8 月 5 日，我本来只是临时租住在厦门，因为我担心不喜欢中国。十多年后，我在同一个城市写下这篇文章。显然，我爱中国。

* Was it when I made the decision to extend the temporary stay to a long-term one?
— If you’d asked me in the first year or two, I’d have said I’d move on in 2-3 years. But here I am…

* 是我决定将长期居住在厦门的时候吗？

—如果你在头两年问我会不会长期居住在厦门，我会说未来两三年会的。但十多年过去了，我还住在这里……

So, maybe the answer is in the numbers?

— 2 jobs – or –2 local cats rescued – or – 2 surgeries – or – 2 passports

— 5 years of calligraphy lessons

— 8 apartments

— 16 email newsletters (in those early years)

— 23 provincial and provincial administrative regions visited

— 37 entry stamps

— 42, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything (if only we knew the question)

— Dozens of tourist sites hiked/photographed/toured

— 100s of cities visited

— 300-something photos of pandas taken

或许答案就藏在数字里？

——换了 2 份工作，救了 2 只当地的猫，做了 2 次手术，持有 2 本护照

——上了 5年书法课

——住了 8 间公寓

——写了 16 份电子邮件通讯（头几年）

——走访 23 个省、省级行政区

——盖了 37 个入境印章

——42，这是生命、宇宙和一切终极问题的答案（懂的都懂）

——游览拍摄了数十个旅游景点

——访问了 100 多座城市

——拍摄了 300 多张熊猫照片

So, I don’t really know when or how it began, exactly, or when it will end. But it has been a wonderful journey, and very different than where I grew up. As I tell my students (and the occasional inquisitive taxi driver): Iowa (my home state) is roughly the same size as Fujian. But the entire state has a population less than Xiamen (although when I moved here years ago, the populations were about the same). Which of my numbers will keep going up?

所以，我真的不知道我的中国之旅何时开始，如何开始，到底何时结束。但我清楚的是，这是一段美妙的旅程，与我的家乡大不相同。我告诉我的学生（也偶尔会告诉好奇的出租车司机）：爱荷华州（我的家乡）与福建一般大。但是全州的人口比厦门还少（即使我搬来这里好几年了，那儿的人口还是一样多）。未来，在我的中国故事中，哪些数字还会继续增加呢？

作者：凯瑟琳 翻译：潘泽彬

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