Zhong Guo

Around the first week of October, I will be headed for (as you can see from the above) the Middle Kingdom. I'll be teaching the history of American Political Theory in Nanjing--in English, of course--to students at Nanjing University, and possibly another university in Nanjing, for six weeks. Flying into the Northern Kingdom (Beijing), down to the Southern Kingdom (Nanjing), and flying out of the the town by the sea (Shanghai). Nothing like the chance to fly all the way across the world to talk about the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, as well as a couple of things that followed, namely the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and, just for fun, the Chinese Exclusion Act. Sort of theory vs. practice.

Perhaps most ironic is that I will be talking about the philosophical foundations of the Bill of Rights during a US Administration that views most of the rights adumbrated there as "optional," with the exception of the Second Amendment, of course. I'm almost with my conservative friends these days in thinking that with this kind of government, we should have access to guns, and lots of them, if only to protect us from our own government.

Anyway, anyone reading this should leave a comment, and, especially, if you've been to China, offer tips, suggestions, etc.. I may not be doing a lot of travelling--there's lots to see just in Nanjing--but I may try to do some.

I may try to blog from there, if I get a chance; no guarantees. I may also blog about my experience with learning the language. On my good days, I can ask young women back to my apartment, offering them the options of beer, wine, tennis, or bowling; I can also ask "who farted?" and complain that my toilet is clogged up. As far as reading and writing, I've got about 200 characters--I've been told after 300 they start to get easier, and I'm certainly hoping that's true--with the goal of getting to around 5,000. Depending on who you ask, one needs a minimum of 2,000 to 3,000 to read a newspaper, get around, etc., and I hope to do better than that. On the other hand, to become an officer in the Imperial Army, I will need 40,000, so that career option seems no longer a strong possiblity. Tant pis.