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We are Lily and David Cooke. Lily is Chinese, David is English. We have been married for eighteen years and live in South Warwickshire, in the United Kingdom.
Being regular visitors to China, we are often asked to comment on various aspects of this fascinating and rapidly changing country.
Our problem has been, however, that all too frequently we find ourselves talking to people whose image of China has already been conditioned by a combination of media misinformation, the negative propaganda of a few misguided liberals, and the socio-political expediencies of the so-called "West".
In the face of such conditioning, is it even possible for people like us to comment on the real China?
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The ancient Chinese classic "Dao de Jing" begins with the line:
The true meaning of this stansa is almost too deep to bear translation, but if we were to try to give it meaning in English we might come up with something like:
"The principle that can be (conceptualised as) the principle is no longer (by virtue of having been conceptualised) the real principle."
That being the case, perhaps we might also be allowed to say:
"The China that can be (talked about as) China is no longer (by virtue of having been talked about) the real China."
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But how do you talk about China without actually talking about China? Well, perhaps we could begin by letting go of all our preconceptions about that country and allowing China to talk to us.
And in a sense, that is what this website is all about. By putting our own experiences (and those of a few close friends and family members) onto the web, it is just possible that somewhere in all this "talking without talking" the real China might -- just might -- begin to be heard.
So in the final analysis, as well as being about "Our China" --- the China that we experience and the people that we meet --- we hope that this website will provide a platform for some fascinating stories that otherwise might never be told. Enjoy!
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