Getting to Know Us (February/March 1986 | Volume: 37, Issue: 2)

Getting to Know Us

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Authors: Wenhui Hou

Historic Era: Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)

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February/March 1986 | Volume 37, Issue 2

I feel that my life has been mostly uneventful. But, to other people, it seems that I should have nothing more to wish for: my husband and I both work at Lanzhou University in north central China, where my husband is a professor of Russian history and I teach the history of the world’s Middle Ages, as well as ancient Chinese history. At the university, we are considered to have a good future. Besides this, I have two adorable children. It seemed that I should be content because life had blessed me with so much. The only thing I needed to do was to preserve the normal flow of this long river of life. But, as I was born with a nature that is never willing to maintain the status quo, I inevitably created some ripples in the calm stream.

In the spring of 1983, I received a notice from the authorities of the university. Under the auspices of a cultural-exchange agreement between Lanzhou University and the University of Missouri, I was selected to represent my university as a visiting fellow in 1984. I was to do research in American history at the history department of the University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri. Naturally this news was very exciting to me. Since 1979, when China began to dispatch students to study abroad, I had wanted to see the world. And so, in 1980, I studied English in my spare time (my first foreign language is Russian) so that I could be prepared for any opportunity that arose. When I received the notice, my dream became reality.

However, even in the midst of my excitement, I felt apprehensive—if the plan went through, it would mean that for one whole year I would not see my husband or my children. Furthermore, in order to fulfill the assignment from my university, it was necessary for me to disregard my original field of study and switch to that of American history. Although I had read a bit about American history in the past, I had never considered the subject from a scholarly point of view. So, my biggest responsibility in America would be to start studying anew, which would be arduous work. For an instant, I hesitated. But, in the end, my hesitation was overcome by my belief that we should control life and not let life control us. My eyes brimming with tears, I took leave of my beloved husband, children, and friends, crossed the vast Pacific Ocean, and arrived in a country that I had never been to, but that was not entirely unfamiliar either —the United States of America.

To be honest, when I boarded the China Airlines jet on its way to San Francisco, I was in a nervous and fretful mood. I worried about my future superiors and colleagues, and I worried about the environment of the university’s campus. Every possible type of question flooded my brain. It got to the point