Pollution, Tradition, Radiation Clothes and Blondes

When flying over China, I looked on my map and saw that we were flying over the ocean. I look out my window and see a muddy, brown mess, very similar, my Memphian friends, to the Mississippi River! "This can't be the ocean?", I thought, but then I remembered about all the pollution troubles in China.
Suzhou is one of the top cities for 'most effective pollution control', but still sees no blue skies. That's right, there aren't blue skies in China...they are greyish white. It's forever overcast, and most of the time smoggy. Yesterday I saw the sun for the first time, and the sky seemed more a blueish grey, but even then the smog didn't lift. Most days I've had so far, you can't see much more than a mile or two, even from a high point because it's gets to foggy. The rain doesn't blow it off either, and neither does wind. Aunt Pam said that on Chinese New Year, when most factories close, that the smog will blow off. I guess we'll see though.
Chinese New Year this year is on February 14th, or Valentines Day! It is also called 'Spring Festival' or 'Lunar New Year', because the Chinese use to consider the new moon of the 12 month to being a new year. So that's why the day of Chinese New Year will change; the day is according to the size of the moon! The day after Chinese is yet another holiday: Chinese Lantern Festival. Traditionally the first day of Chinese New Year starts on the first of February and ends on the 15th; much like the 12 days of Christmas to us. This year is the Year of the Dragon! Chinese New Year's Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means "Year-pass Eve". The New Year to the Chinese is the most important holiday of the year.
Two days ago at the store we passed an ail that said "baby clothes, pregnant clothes, and radiation protection." Okay, I can understand 'baby clothes' going with 'pregnant clothes',...but 'radiation protection clothes'? Why would you want to associate radiation to the birth of a child? Well, it turns out it's not the radiation that i was thinking of, like nuclear bombs and such. Rather is was a thought of the Chinese. Either by tradition or fact, I don't know, the pregnant woman wears these radiation protective kind of 'jumpers' over their clothes, to protect the baby from signals from the computers and printers! Hahaha! Most babies here are spoiled, because they are all only children. So I guess mothers do everything they can to protect the well-being of their child, because it's the only one they get to have. By tradition, the sons take care of the parents when the parents get old, so many Chinese hope for a boy.
I went to Uncle Mark's office today. He is the manager of a Sachem plant in Wuxi, a city about 45 minutes from Suzhou. I was introduced to all the office workers. All Chinese except one black guy from America. When I met him, it occurred to me that this was the first black person I had EVER seen in China, and I mean ever!!! You see, China's culture is so different than America. I don't see how other countries can call America racist when there are places like Asia involved. You see, white people are rare here, or maybe there are lots of them, but the Chinese just over power in numbers! Many people stare at us as we walk through the streets. Little children smile and point at us, and then hide behind their parents when I smile back. The blondes in the Stasney family get special attention. And so do the twins. And so the the number of children. And so does Uncle Mark's red hair. And so does our height. And so does my curly hair. And so do our clothes, skin, shoes, groceries, and accents. EVERYTHING is strange about us to the Chinese, and they crowd around the kids like they are some sort of exhibit at the zoo! Aunt Pam says in tourist China, people will come and touch you, and touch the kids hair, because they have never seen a blonde. Once the kids got their haircut, and the hair cutters saved the blonde hair they cut off. David, Mark’s African American co-worker, told me that when he goes to tourist places, people ask to take pictures with him, because he’s sooo tall (he’s like 6 ‘7’’) and because he’s black! It just seems surreal to me that in America we have Chinese, Japanese, Indians, America-Indians, African-Americans, Caucasians, Mexicans, and then mixes of those! All of these people I have seen, and for the most part, never looked twice at them. Never gawked at their weird clothes (with the exception of a few Indian women in their burkas in Walmart), and never tried to TOUCH them! It just goes to show you one of the many ways that America is a different country than all the others: we have diversity like the Chinese have never seen before!
So if you ever want to become the center of attention, get cheap silk, or only see a blue sky once a year, I recommend taking a trip to the wonderful world of China! If not, then don't and say you did, by following me on my continued adventure!