Eric's Beijing Diary

This evening, I had a chance to listen to Sirin Phathanothai. Her father was a government official in Thailand, and he sent her to China as an eight-year-old girl with her twelve-year-old brother. They came to China as guests of the Chinese government, and eventually ended up living more or less as adopted children of Zhou En-lai.

Sirin's book looks like it will be interesting, not so much in terms of the historical details, because they are so well known, but in terms of very personal insights into personalities. For example, she tells of coming home from school one day carrying an ugly piece of crudely made steel from one of the many neighborhood smelters which sprang up during the Great Leap Forward. When Zhou saw it he was very angry. He told her to go back to school and not have any part in such foolishness. It's an interesting insight, because it demonstrates that support for Mao's Great Leap Forward was far from universal among party leadership.

I have considerable sympathy for Sirin as a child living away from home, because I went to a boarding school during my elementary school years. I asked her where she felt the most at home today, Thailand or China. Her answer was interesting. She said, "I love China, but I can never feel at home here, because for me, China was always a country of obligation." But she told me that while Thailand is her home country, she doesn't really feel at home there either. She said she feels the most comfortable when she is neither in Thailand or China (she lives in Paris). Interesting. It reminds me of something Roger Olson told me one time. He said he felt the most at home when he was on the plane between Japan and America. It's a strange things with third culture kids, you know. I am a U.S. citizen, and I lived in America for forty years, but I cannot recall ever feeling at home there.