Sara in China

About This Blog

About this blog: observations, musings, and amusements from my year abroad in China. Sometimes about technology, always about culture.

This title is deceptively simple, but it’s actually inspired by a very important movie in my childhood development that accounted for the majority of my knowledge about China up until about college. It’s apt, because as an American female here in Chongqing I feel about as conspicuous as a big yellow bird. Likewise, my Chinese is starting at about Sesame Street levels, so I’ve got that going for me.

I acquired the VHS of Big Bird in China somewhat haphazardly. I was probably about 6 or so, and we had rented the tape from our local video store (remember those??) and brought it with us to a visit to some family friends in New Hampshire. The tape served to occupy the kids in the evening while the parents had their play date. There was a huge thunderstorm which resulted in a power outage, and the tape remained stuck in the New Hampshire VHS player when it was time to return home to Massachusetts. And so, not able to get it back in a reasonable amount of time for the return without incurring crazy fees, we purchased Big Bird in China from the video store, and it joined the ranks of my Most Frequently Watched Movies along with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (what can I say, I had good taste in movies from an early age).

Here’s the gist: Big Bird is hanging out in Chinatown in New York (because back then, Sesame Street was edgy and took place in the ‘hood) and finds a beautiful scroll with another big bird on it. The shop-keep explains to him the legend of the scroll: that in order to find the phoenix bird, one must find the four famous landmarks and historical places pictured encircling it in the time before the sand runs out, and along the way, the monkey king will guide him along with clues. Big Bird is really interested to learn more about China (because he’s curious and inquisitive that way) and he thinks “how cool it would be if this American bird were to go learn all about China from this Chinese bird.” Needless to say, hilarity ensues (they take the slow boat to China), there are trials and tribulations, Big Bird meets a nice little Chinese girl who speaks English, and they find the phoenix bird. But Big Bird has little to ask her when they finally meet because he’s learned so much about China in his journey. Yay Sesame Street!

To give you a sense of the adorable cuteness that is this movie, here’s the scene where Xiao Fu teaches Big Bird some Chinese (note: this is also reflects the extent of my knowledge of the language until I started taking Mandarin last fall).

While I may not be on a quest to find my Chinese counterpart, I’m certainly hoping to learn a long along the way. Here’s to adventure!

Post script: Other very worthy suggested titles for this blog included: Sara Does China; Smwat Pot; Hot Smwat; Fuck Yeah, Hot Pot; Watson Noodles, From One “People’s Republic” to Another; Walking the Firewall of China; Clickin’ a la Qing; 我是外国人.