Back To Chiner.

Little is subtle about China. The smog is thick. It's political policies are harsh and resistant to quick change. The food must always include rice, unless it's noodles. And the population, as we know, is booming beyond all. Only its great firewall, luckily, can be climbed with a little help from my VPN (Virtual Private Network) and some grease (money).

When I flew back to China, I found all this the same. In fact, the government was already in the process of firing chemical rockets into the air surrounding Zhengzhou in an attempt to disrupt the drought that had been plaguing the countryside since early September, I read in the China Daily. Business as usual, it was happening before anyone even knew, but as they promised, nothing could wrong with it. Mysterious chemicals in the atmosphere and no harm? Well, there are no studies that show negative consequences, the person quoted quipped, perfectly safe. I doubted there were any extensive studies yet, as I brushed the condensation off my plane window to peer outside, only to find it wasn't there. The obstruction of visibility was the smog outside. Again, the usual.

As I rode into Zhengzhou, the characteristic endless string of red lanterns lined the highway, but here they were a new addition, signaling something had changed. The Spring Festival had passed. I knew I had missed it (on purpose): the Chinese New Year, the dragon parade, the dumplings, the Lantern Festival and the cherishing of the rabbit, in its new year. Bloom, one of the students at HMC who picked me up from the airport, told me it would be okay if I just ate some dumplings instead. I didn't need to feel any guilt for missing it. Around town, exploding firecrackers, fireworks and the sound of noise-sensitive car alarms--BOOM! CRACK! DINGDINGDING!--brashly broke Bloom's subtlety and thundered in my head, even though the holiday was indeed over.

Despite my late timing, I hadn't even managed to miss a hint of the madness. China, subtle, you are not.

(This is actually not a picture taken in China, but in Hanoi, Vietnam, just two weeks before the kick-off of the Spring Festival. As I've been told, Hanoi has the world's largest Chinese New Year celebration, outside the Middle Kingdom, of course.)

Two days later, I started teaching classes again. *Real life* has resumed and luckily the noises have subsided. I'm now teaching 4 days a week, one section less, making me a very happy person to be back here after all. China is China; love it or leave it.