Chinese Curiosities: Question 1, Why Kaifeng?

In August of 2007 I moved from Chicago, IL to the Chinese city of Kaifeng. I relocated there with the intention of imersing myself in the culture and to study the Chinese language.

I'll admit that this is not the most obvious choice of places to decamp to from America. I'm pretty sure that my choice probably even baffled most of my Chinese friends (very sure in fact). And yet I chose it all the same. But why?

First a little background on Kaifeng. Kaifeng is a smallish Chinese city of around a half million people. (I always introduce it this way in some feeble attempt to try to shift people's understanding of both the scale and depth of China.) It is located on the North China Plain just a few miles south of the Yellow River. It was once a great Imperial Capital about a thousand years ago, probably the most important city in the world at the time. Then came the barbarians (first the Jurchen followed up quickly by the Mongols) and then a disasterous flood of by the Yellow river (one of many) which completely inundated the ancient city and permanently buried it under meters of sediment. (That ancient city is still beneath today's Kaifeng streets.)

China Links

Well lets get these fascinating Chinese links (see above, hehe) out there:

Evan Osnos writes a fabulous article in the New Yorker on Chinese tour groups out exploring. He joins Chinese tour group to Europe, and is a much braver man than I.

Bob Dylan goes to Beijing and plays some music. Some people fret others are circumspect.

A revolutionary (for China) Chinese University in Shenzhen China opens. It is revolutionary because it does not accept the Gaokao or entrance exam, and it is backed in its efforts to foster independent thought and research by the local government of Shenzhen. It will not be accredited by the National Education Ministry, but it is trying to carve a new path for Chinese education. I remember reading an interview with Mr. Zhu in Science which I discussed with my Chinese grad student class back in Kaifeng many years ago. They were less excited. Perhaps because they had already invested a lot of time in their traditional Chinese educations of suspect value. hmm

Chinese Ministry of Culture bans time travel!...
...on TV.
Ok less amusing but still pretty weird. The censors in China don't just go after things overtly political or that which might cause social upheaval. They also are pretty puritanical on pornography and I guess time travel too. Perhaps they really are worried about differing historical narratives being put out there.

Superstition again mixes with science and propaganda in contemporary China.