In the fall of 2002, I’d been in Korea for over two and a half years straight (it was my 2nd stint in Korea, having spent 1998 there, as well), and I was ready for a new challenge.
I wanted to tackle China. Discover her secrets. Take in her sights, sounds, and smells. I’d lived in Singapore and then Seoul, but I was considering a city I’d always wanted to live in: Shanghai, the “Paris of the East.” But I also had a strong urge to live in the north (such as in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, or Inner Mongolia) or in the west (Qinghai or Xinjiang).
I researched jobs in China. Most were teaching jobs at universities. Those were okay, but I was hoping for more money and maybe a step up to an administrative job. Further research uncovered job opportunities at a franchise called English First, or EF, where there were plenty of admin jobs (mainly Academic Director), suitable for someone of my experience and education. There were three such positions in cities/places where I was very interested in living: Harbin (Heilongjiang), Chengdu (Sichuan), and Karamay.
I researched the locales more than I did the actual jobs, though the job in Karamay was a brand-new one, and that appealed to me just on general principle; the school wouldn’t open until March 2003 (and I was researching in October 2002). And while I really liked what I read about Chengdu and Dalian (and their respective provinces, Sichuan and Heilongjiang), choosing Karamay was a no-brainer.
I’d read about the vast array of minority cultures in the Far West and I knew all about the Silk Road. That I was at that time also interested in Islam and Central and West Asian cultures and languages made my choosing Karamay all the easier.
In the days leading up to my interview with the main office in Shanghai, I studied and researched as much as I could on East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and those who lived there. I read about Kazakhs, Tatars, Russians, Tajiks, and Turkmens, all of whom were represented in varying degrees within the multicultural mix that is Central Asia.
Of course, I learned a lot about the most numerous of all the ethnicities there – the Uyghurs. Their history fascinated me. Their culture attracted me. Their language drew me (I’d been studying Arabic at the time). Additionally, their food, their physical characteristics, and their spirit, as described in all that I read, conspired to lure me like old clothes and dark closets entice a moth.
When I finally interviewed, the interviewer was taken aback at my knowledge of Xinjiang. Though I was qualified for the position, my passion for the place and the people there, as well as my zeal to work there regardless of its remoteness, sealed it for me. I’m sure she had expected to have to sell me on Karamay, not the other way around.
Next: A week in Shanghai...