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CSD In China: Final Reflections
-By Ryan Hutchison
After an exhausting and exhilarating trip it sure is good to be back home in America. I sorely missed my family, but was surprised how much I missed Mexican food. Maudies Tex-Mex, seems you’ve become an integral part of my daily digestive life and need to be promoted to my holiday card list! We worked hard during our trip with little time to see China as tourists. But as hometown boy, I HAD to make time to catch two Seattle Seahawks playoff games. I’ll always remember waking at 3:45 am to watch our Seahawks successfully battle against the Packers at Shanghai’s Camel Bar alongside a rowdy, 30-strong Shanghai “12th Man” contingent.
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CSD In China: Contrasts
-By Ryan Hutchison
Today, America’s Deaf community stands on the shoulders of leaders like Laurent Clerc, I King Jordan, Ben Soukup, and countless others who fought tirelessly to advocate for and demand the civil rights we benefit from as Deaf Americans. While we’ve come a long way, tremendous challenges remain that all Deaf Americans must overcome to fully realize their dreams.
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CSD In China: Deaf Communication
-By Ryan Hutchison
It’s hard for me to believe that the enormously crowded city of Shanghai is only the sixth largest urban area in the world. It seems clusters of skyscrapers erupt everywhere! As foreigners in Shanghai, Ruan and I don’t stick out as much as we would have in this city a decade ago, but still attract quite a few curious stares as we talk to each other in ASL on the streets and in the subway. We aren’t approached (and perhaps are avoided) by hearing locals in our travels around the city, but have enjoyed several experiences of engaging with random Deaf Chinese who are thrilled to see and engage with signing foreigners.
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CSD In China: Education
-By Ryan Hutchison
Ruan and I left the smoggy skyline of Shanghai for an hour flight and 90-minute drive to Jiujiang. We’ve come here with our Project Access partner, Dr. Richard Lytle, to better understand the contrasts and quality of life for the deaf community in a much smaller Chinese city to see how interpreting can be successful throughout China. We also are spending time visiting and meeting with the Bo Ai School for the Deaf, a school Richard has supported for many years.
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CSD In China: First Impressions
-By Ryan Hutchison
Ruan and I have been here for a few days. They’ve been hectic but amazing! Our first two days were spent in Shanghai visiting Solar Ear – a social enterprise business that employs 6 deaf workers making hearing aids that can be recharged by the sun. We spent time visiting and meeting with our Project Access partners, and observed an interpreter training session held on Sunday. Professional interpreting is not established enough yet in China for people to make a sustainable living through interpreting jobs alone, so they must have other jobs and therefore receive training from Project Access on Sundays – typically the only day off for professionals here in Shanghai.
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