Hello. The new forums are looking good. I’m a long-time user of Chinesepod, having signed up back in 2008 when I started out with Mandarin (my username back then was thinkbuddha, after the blog I ran for several years).
I’m a writer and philosophy teacher and things like that, and I’m based at the moment between Leicester in the UK and Chengdu. Back when I started out learning Chinese, it was because I was writing a strange kind of novel based on the Yijing.
The novel came out this year from Earnshaw Books in Shanghai (it’s called Sixty Four Chance Pieces, and it’s a curious beast — but good for lovers of quirky tales and Chinese arcane lore!). Since then I’ve continued my philosophical and literary poking around in the entrails of the Chinese tradition. I’m more or less hooked.
As a result, I’ve just a couple of weeks back moved over here to Chengdu for a year or so, and taken up a post at Chuanda in the literature and journalism department. After a lull of a couple of years, I’m back to being a regular Chinesepod user — not to say enthusiast. You guys are doing a brilliant job.