Thirty Years Ago

1978 was a big year for China. China's entire political economic landscape is dominated by the reforms that began in this year. Deng Xiaoping took over after the death of Mao and initiated the policies now commonly known as Reform and Opening Up. Reform refers to domestic economic reforms which began in the countryside and moved China away from a Communist state-dominated economy. Opening Up refers to external reforms that began economic, trade, and scientific collaboration between China and foreign countries. Over and over again, Chinese celebrate the past thirty years by citing achievements in economic development and technological progress.

Understanding the way China is sets the stage for the changes that occurred in 1978 sets the background for my research. Producing quality rice is a way to get beyond the obsession with producing mass quantities of rice that came with Communism. As China celebrates thirty years of progress and success, 1978 is tauted as a new beginning. And thirty years ago in the US, new beginnings were also taking place but on a much different scale.

Thirty years ago today I was born. Although my life has paralleled China's reforms, I spent my first twenty years pretty much oblivious to what was happening in China. And now I am in the midst of a major research project examining the effects of these reforms through Chinese rice. This is not my first birthday in China. I spent my first birthday here seven years ago in Luzhou, Sichuan at Xingqi Ba (a place where everyone knew my name). It was the one place in Luzhou where I could always go to feel at home. I was back there the next year.

Last year on my birthday, I was in Colorado, thinking about how and when I would return to China next. The day before I had submitted a major grant proposal I had crammed into writing in just six weeks. I spent most of my birthday obsessing over the minor details I had (or had not) written into the grant. Well, it worked out just fine. I got that grant and now I am here.

I gave a presentation this morning at a conference. My presentation was about linking culture, economy, and ecology through rice in China. Before the presentation, the group presented me with a big poster everyone had signed and written in different languages. Embarrassingly, they also sang Happy Birthday in English and a variety of Northeast Asian languages (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Russian-maybe some Mongolian as well). The presentation went well and now I can relax. What a cool way to spend a birthday.