{"id":4129,"date":"2015-09-15T04:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2015-09-14T21:12:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T04:12:12","slug":"4129","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/4129\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Anniversary of my Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"Celebration\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Okay. I admit, I missed it. I should have celebrated the anniversary of my blog on August 7. But the occasion totally slipped my mind until one day I clicked on Timo\u2019s post, \u201cSecond Blogaversary<\/a>.\u201d You see, Timo started his blog Crazy Chinese Family <\/em>a few days after I started mine. And he kept track of the date. (If you haven\u2019t already, check out his blog for cute baby pictures, funny stories about his mother-in-law, and the ups and downs of life for a young man from Finland and a woman from China living in Germany.)<\/p>\n

\"Gulangyu,<\/a>

Gulangyu, China<\/p><\/div>\n

So today, approximately five weeks late, I\u2019m celebrating the second anniversary of my blog. I named the blog \u201cBehind the Story\u201d because my original intention was to talk about subjects related to my first novel, Tiger Tail Soup<\/a>.<\/em> I stuck to that goal pretty well during my first year. Three of my first four posts were about Gulangyu, the setting for my novel. Here\u2019s an example: \u201cNo Room at the Inn.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"by<\/a>

by B_cool-from-Singapore<\/p><\/div>\n

During that first year I wrote about Chinese food<\/a>, bound feet<\/a>, tigers<\/a>, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"qipao,<\/a>I also wrote about the Chinese civil service exams<\/a>, famine survivors<\/a>, and Chinese dresses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Iron<\/a>

Iron Goddess of Mercy Tea<\/p><\/div>\n

During the second year, my focus changed somewhat. I didn\u2019t totally neglect topics related to my novel. I wrote a post I called All the Tea in China<\/a> that highlighted oolong tea and its origins in Fujian Province. I wrote about \u201cThe Great Tiger Hunter of Fujian,\u201d<\/a> and also about a ghost in a wartime cemetery<\/a> who had a bit part in my novel.<\/p>\n

\"Kissing<\/a>Looking back, though, I see that gradually my blog became more personal and varied. I wrote about how I became a writer<\/a> and how I met my Chinese husband<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tulips<\/a>

Tulips meet daffodils at RoozenGaarde.<\/p><\/div>\n

I shared photos from my wedding<\/a> and from trips<\/a> I took. I wrote about winter<\/a> and springtime<\/a> and my grandson\u2019s graduation<\/a> from high school.<\/p>\n

As for year three, I expect it to be similar to year two. When I\u2019m far enough along on my second novel, I\u2019d like to include some background information on the novel\u2019s setting\u2014Manila during the coup attempts that followed the People Power Revolution and Vanuatu as it was twenty-five years ago.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to that. But knowing my writing speed and my penchant for revising, I may not get that far until year four.<\/p>\n

What kind of posts do you hope to see on my blog during year three? Did you have any favorites from year two?<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a>If you haven’t already signed up and would like a reminder of future blog posts, just leave your email address in the box on the upper right of the page and click subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Okay. I admit, I missed it. I should have celebrated the anniversary of my blog on August 7. But the occasion totally slipped my mind until one day I clicked on Timo\u2019s post, \u201cSecond Blogaversary.\u201d You see, Timo started his blog Crazy Chinese Family a few days after I started mine. And he kept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[317,13],"tags":[984,688,982,32,395,986,927,981,985,988,992,987,195,989,990,991,26,285,983],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-china","tag-attack-on-pearl-harbor","tag-behind-the-story","tag-blog-anniversary","tag-bound-feet","tag-chinese-civil-service-exams","tag-chinese-dresses","tag-chinese-food","tag-crazy-chinese-family","tag-famine-survivors","tag-ghost-in-wartime-cemetery","tag-grandsons-graduation","tag-great-tiger-hunter-of-fujian","tag-gulangyu-china","tag-how-i-became-a-writer","tag-how-i-met-my-chinese-husband","tag-my-wedding","tag-no-room-at-the-inn","tag-oolong-tea","tag-tiger"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3Kn1e-4129","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6076,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/can-you-count-online-friends-as-friends\/","url_meta":{"origin":4129,"position":0},"title":"Are Online Friends Really Friends?","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Most of the bloggers listed in the blogroll on your right are people I\u2019ve never met in the flesh. We\u2019ve never hugged or shared a cup of coffee. And yet, through our blogs, we know each other pretty well. And we care about each other, I think. 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I look at all those Chinese characters and I wonder, is this really my novel? If only I could read Chinese! I did study it for a while. But that was years ago, and with the passage of time, the words just slipped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"by Gracenotes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/by-gracenotes-Wikipe-tan_shocked.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3155,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/where-have-all-the-tigers-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":4129,"position":2},"title":"Where Have All the Tigers Gone?","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"January 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"During the holidays my family\u2014seven adults, one child and a teenager\u2014visited the Indianapolis Zoo. Despite the unwieldy size of our group, we succeeded in staying together for a while. (The shark-petting pool with its small hint of danger appealed to us.) 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Over the past ten months, have I been able to spark your interest in topics related to my novel? Have I stimulated your hunger for more? Because--I cannot lie--that's exactly what I've been hoping to do.First, I introduced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blogging"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"my cover, 5-27-14","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/my-cover-5-27-14.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4994,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/a-chinese-city-retains-its-old-world-charm\/","url_meta":{"origin":4129,"position":5},"title":"A Chinese Island Retains Its Old World Charm.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Who would have thought that my contractors, a husband and wife team, would have visited Gulangyu on their Asian cruise! After all, they had five or six countries to visit, and the cruise only allowed three stops in China. Surprisingly, one of the stops was at the small island of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"View_of_Urban_Area_of_Amoy_from_Mount_RiguangyanBy \u305d\u3089\u307f\u307f - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=32001997","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/View_of_Urban_Area_of_Amoy_from_Mount_RiguangyanBy-%E3%81%9D%E3%82%89%E3%81%BF%E3%81%BF-Own-work-CC-BY-SA-3.0-httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid32001997.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/View_of_Urban_Area_of_Amoy_from_Mount_RiguangyanBy-%E3%81%9D%E3%82%89%E3%81%BF%E3%81%BF-Own-work-CC-BY-SA-3.0-httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid32001997.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/View_of_Urban_Area_of_Amoy_from_Mount_RiguangyanBy-%E3%81%9D%E3%82%89%E3%81%BF%E3%81%BF-Own-work-CC-BY-SA-3.0-httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid32001997.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4169,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}