Up, close and personal with Cheerful China

"Why did you cut my punch line, 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'?" asked Australian Patrick Whiteley, a former editor. I replied: "I just thought cold dishes are delicious, and why shouldn't anyone like them?" Exasperated, he explained: "But in the West, 'Revenge is a dish served cold' means to treat someone badly in retaliation."

Oops.

It's not easy job being the editor of China Daily's "Hotpot" column. After taking charge in January 2007, I've bumped into many barrier reefs beneath the seemingly placid surface of the sea of English-language writing about China.

From Tuesday to Thursday, the Hotpots have regularly appeared on Page 20.

Scores of contributors from various corners of the globe have discussed their first impressions of transportation, shopping and traveling in this country, while others have pondered cultural differences, giving rich and vivid examples.

This month, the cream of the column has been published by the China Intercontinental Press: 101 Silly Stories from Cheerful China - China Daily Hotpot Column Collection, which is available in major foreign language book stores across the country.

Working on this collection, I came to realize that love, weddings and marriage seem to be a favorite theme. American Erik Nilsson, a quiet young colleague whose stories never fail to get a guffaw from us, has "married" - yet never "divorced" - a number of girls from various ethnic groups during his journeys throughout the country.

During Christmas in 2009, he limped around the capital in a Santa suit with a fractured foot along with other Kris Kringles. Everyone in the office thought dear Erik truly needed a break. What a surprise it was, then, to read in his next Hotpot that on New Year's Day, he had hobbled on crutches cut from saplings along a cliff into a mountain-locked village in Yunnan province.

China might seem a vast, mysterious Middle Kingdom that's overwhelming for first-time visitors. But as many of our authors have discovered, the minute one decides to walk out of the safety zone to embrace the unknown, new adventures with wonderful and weird people abound.

While the Hotpot column was designed to allow any good writing to be thrown into the soup - much like various tasty tidbits are tossed into the bubbling cauldron that is real hotpot - conflicts erupted among editors several times over certain stories, making it necessary to draw up some guidelines.

They should not be merely a statement of facts but, rather, ought to be written in a witty, quirky and descriptive way. Unlike the editorials in the opinion section, Hotpots should be personal - amusing experiences or thought-provoking observations of human nature and reality. The column should never offend or poke fun at the weak and disadvantaged.

And as the "dish served cold" versus "cold dish" incident illustrates, there's so much more to learn about a culture than its language. Respecting others, especially those from different backgrounds, will lead to real understanding and communication.

In this sense, perhaps China Daily's Hotpot serves as a melting pot in which our thoughts and actions boil over, enabling all of us to share our different tastes for the spice of life.

I am grateful to all the authors who have taken my suggestions seriously and rewritten their fine stories up to five or six times before this picky editor would give them the thumbs up.

If you want to contribute - and are willing to put up with the fastidious editor's endless suggestions - please drop us a line or two.