Introduction - Some Thoughts Before You Begin

Rick Mundt (1950-2024)

Anyone that reads this journal has to remember some things. I lived in Luoyang, China for five years, not two weeks, not eight months, five years. I lived the life there, I became part of the Asian world, I learned about their culture, traditions and festivals.

No, I cannot speak Chinese, I know some words. I walked the streets, shopped in all kinds of stores and ate in all kinds of restaurants. I saw huge changes in the city. This journal is about my life there at that time. This is how I saw things and the things that happened to me while I was there. This is what it was like for a foreigner to live in China. Someone else that has lived there has their experiences, there's will be different from mine. If they lived in another part of China, they had there experiences in that area which may be different from mine.

If you went there with other people, like a delegation or tourist group for two weeks, you had your experiences. You had a tour bus, a guide/translator, you stayed in nice hotels, ate at nice restaurants, a bus came and picked you up and took you to tourist sites and other places, it picked you up and brought you back to your hotel. It was wonderful. You took pictures and video to remember your trip. You can only talk about what you saw during those two weeks; you did not live there. You did not get to know the life and culture. Everyday life there is not the same as being a tourist

For my Chinese friends that read this, they also have to remember this is about my time living there. I love my Chinese friends. I couldn’t ask for better friends. They were wonderful to me. I was so lucky to meet those people. While I lived there, some things were wonderful, some were not. It is the same for the Chinese teachers that came to the US, they had their experiences both good and bad. They have their opinions about the US. It is like anyone who comes to the US. Each person has their own experiences. If someone comes here as a tourist for two weeks, it will be the same as for the person that went to China. They will see tourist sites, have a guide/translator, eat in nice restaurants and stay in nice hotels. They will take pictures and video, go back home and have those memories. But they did not experience living here. They did not get to know the life and culture.

Until you live somewhere else besides your home country, you cannot understand what the other country is like. You can see movies and read about it but it isn’t like living there. You can go online and learn everything there is to know about it but you will see it differently when you actually go there. You can study about the Great Wall and know all about it but what is it really like when you are there and walking on it?

I met a Chinese girl in 2015 in La Crosse that had been here for four years and was going to graduate in May. She told me a story. She wanted her parents to come here to see her graduate but her father didn’t want to come. He didn’t want to come because of what he saw in movies, on the news and so many bad things that happened in the US. It took the girl three months to convince her dad to come for her graduation. He came here and loved it. The things that he had heard and seen were different than what it was really like here. He and his wife stayed for a month. It’s like that for everyone. We all go by what we are told, what we see in movies and what we hear on the news. That is how we form our opinions. When we go somewhere and see what it is really like, it may be different from what we have heard.

Cultures and traditions can be very different in different countries. We go somewhere and wonder why they do those things. It is so different from what we do and what we believe in. The world is made up of all kinds of people, traditions and so many different cultures. We don’t understand why things are done a certain way. Not everyone does things the same. The world would be so boring if we all did things the same way. We have to be open to other things and other ways of life. Watch and learn, that’s what I did when I went to China. Ask the people there, they will tell you about their culture. They will explain about things in their world just like we tell others about ours. When someone comes to the US, they can’t understand why we do things the way we do them, the things that we did naturally and were brought up with.

Different peoples of the world have different cultures, religions, traditions, festivals, languages, all kinds of things. But they are also the same; they want to have a good life, a place to live, food to eat, have a family, have a job, make enough money to live on and have what they want.

So please when you read this journal, remember that this is how life was for me during my time in China. Like I said, there are good things and bad things for anyone who goes somewhere and lives a different life from what they know.

If you get to some part of this journal and you have problems with what I wrote or can’t believe what it is like in China and how they do things, come back and read this first part all over again so you keep what I have said in this introduction in perspective. Only someone else who lived there like I did will understand what I have written. Others may not understand but maybe they will find it interesting.

All of the chapters in this journal, some are short and others are longer, starting with A Baby Tradition, will give you an idea of what it is like living there. They are descriptions of things and what it was like living there and what the life was like. The pictures and descriptions will help show things there. Pictures are always helpful. Seeing them and explaining them are two different things. Hopefully if someone reads my journal and looks at the pictures, it will help them understand things better and what it is like in China from my experiences.