 Red Room Writer Profile
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Donald Gallinger's Blog
September 15, 2009
- A recent editorial on Woodstock revealed something far more interesting (at least to me) about the remembrance of that event than any particular ruminations on its symbolic importance in history. Somewhere in the article, the author refuted the old joke about the ‘60s (“If you remember the ‘60’s, then you really weren’t there”) by saying that, whatever meaning the period ...
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April 4, 2009
- [JOURNAL ENTRY, JANUARY 2005:] Here in Shanghai, the golden city that attracts opportunity-seekers from all over the country, you see a vast range of Asian faces. There are the square, flat-planed ones from the north; the almond-eyed, somewhat Polynesian ones from the south; and some that are so Western-looking that you know a Russian fell into the gene pool somewhere along the line. There are ...
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April 4, 2009
- [JOURNAL ENTRY, OCTOBER 2004:] There are about a billion and a half Chinese, and they all seem to ride the subway at the same time that I do. Still, it’s interesting to watch people. In China, as elsewhere, girls who really like a guy always look at him in the same way. And when they don’t really care about a guy, they will look at him in a different way, but all with the same expression. ...
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April 4, 2009
- [JOURNAL ENTRY, OCTOBER 2004:] The Chinese young people all know Western pop music. But they particularly revere the Carpenters and it is not unusual to hear “Yesterday Once More” booming out of the shopping mall sound systems. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve heard that song swirling around restaurants and bars. Depending on how inspired they might feel at any given moment, it ...
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April 4, 2009
- [JOURNAL ENTRY, OCTOBER 2004:] Our Chinese neighbor (English name “Cecelia”) has been teaching my wife and me some Mandarin words. You cannot imagine the strange ways that you have to curl your tongue in your mouth and against your teeth to approximate the correct sounds. Also, the sounds often come from lower in the larynx. Some of the sounds are a weird blend of consonants, vowels, and ...
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April 4, 2009
- Between September 2004 and July 2005, my wife and I lived and worked in Shanghai. It was an experience I’ll never duplicate, no matter how long I may live. I was on sabbatical from my high school in South Jersey, where I teach English. When I first announced to my classes that I was going to the People’s Republic of China, many of my students couldn’t understand my reasons. I told them ...
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October 9, 2008
