As a teenager I was fascinated with the China I created in my own mind. In 1989 we spent a week there. In 1990 we went for two years, to study and teach at the Beijing Second Foreign Language Institute (now known as Beijing International Studies University). We were deeply changed by this experience. Here is my Chinese contact page.
'89 Trip | Life '90-92 | Letters | Links
On
an antique fish I floated down to megalopolis
with
its dusty rugs and temple columns of red blood
and
guards walking in green laundry bags with stars looking from their hats,
and
other men at gates in ordinary clothes who watch.
·
· ·
The
night is a dark and mystifying hill,
the
mind and these longest streets unknown
like
5,000 Chinese characters.
I
kick up the stand, slip in the key, and board my cranky bike.
A
cockroach circling a glass tabletop,
I
pedal awkwardly through a green wind.
Willis Barnstone, Roof Party at the Institute
'06 INDIA TRIP
I
don't know anything about journalizing or memoirs, but I kept a journal
of our 2006 trip to India. A page of excerpts and photos can be seen HERE.
