It appears as though both you and John went to the same school!

I am sad to see the column end as a frequent visitor to Shanghai many of your observations hit home. I will add this to my favorites and hope the legend of “Too Famous” continues.

Maybe, just maybe the Beijing powers that be have nothing else to deal with these days, now that they have staged the best Olympics ever and are clearly in the process of embarrassing all other sporting nations with their ability to dominate in almost every sport. Certainly they wouldn’t want to pay any attention to the creeping influence the global economic malaise is going to have on China’s economy, so they are now looking for a scapegoat to blame for the future social collapse of Chinese society as they know it.

Any good conspiracy theory needs a far fetched idea and a leading man. As we have established that the leading man is our main man Kent and the evil empire is an influence of sarcasm veiled under “Minnesota Nice” we can dig into some of the possible drivers of this theory. Historically if the Beijing powers look back to the 1970′s there may be in innate worry that the early moves of former Governor Perpich to open up channels of engagement with China brought a first mover advantage for Minnesotans. Of course there must have been a longer term ulterior motive greater than that of producing pine chopsticks in northern Minnesota for export to China.

So is it by chance that today there seem to be a disproportionate number of fellow “Gophers” here in Shanghai and spread across this great nation from the familiar climes of Heilongjiang to the far reaches of Xinxiang and Tibet. Why are there so many of us transplanted Minnesoootans? Is it our innate ability to stretch the “O’s” on the English language and staunch failure to even remotely admit our accents? No probably not, but if you are the journalistic powers that control this great country’s media do you want your citizenry adapting Minnesota colloquialisms and accents, I should think not. Possibly even more threatening is our State’s “You Betcha” attitude when is comes to Lutheran missionary work (no need to go any further on this one as this website is surely being monitored by Big Brother in Beijing), or is it a grander conspiracy theory that there is something in the water of our 10,000 plus lakes (actually 17,000) that attracts those 6,000 plus Chinese students to the University of Minnesota? Maybe it is that we elected a former professional wrestler to Governor and this is a little too far left for the glacial movements towards democracy that China has clearly mapped out for the future. Could it be that our true competitive political colors were revealed when our subsequent Governor had to out do his wrestling predecessor by hosting and even larger Governor’s mission to China, and this has scared our hosts about what the next Governor may try to do? Maybe it is the fact that Chinese tourists with their new found financial and USA visa freedoms are coming back from Minnesota disappointed when they couldn’t find “Lake Wobegon” and the “Mall of America” disappointingly only compares with shopping malls in Chinese tier 2 and 3 cities. These are only a few examples that could lead us to a grander conspiracy theory against Minnesota influence in China, but as Kent is our faithful vocal point for Minnesota humor I will leave any additions to this list to be included in his future musings.

Whatever the reason for your recent ban, we are saddened that we won’t get a chance to see your self-deprecating sense of humor and witty insights into the comical and less than comical nature of living and working in this great land that we have adopted. Both figuratively and literally you are a tall tree, so being chopped down, is truly another worthy chapter in the trials and tribulations of being Kent in China. I hope that during your censorship process they did send you one of those overly large cardboard type proclamations with lots of official red stamps alerting you to your demise (if not let me know and we can have one made for you). This will serve as a great memento and wall piece in your Minnesota den. If this is part of a grander scheme to limit the influence that is Kent and part of a conspiracy theory to decrease Minnesota influence in China, then some day after you are thrown out of the country and the rest of us with a similar sense of home grown northern humor must follow, we can meet at your house after church on Sunday for a “Pot Luck”. Then over a pop and hot dishes relish in hearing you rehash your stories of how even “Minnesota Nice” was too much for China to handle.

Sorry I couldn’t keep this under 800 words and I know that am in dire need of an editor, but then again I am from Minnesota.

An amazing first-hand report about how being too sarcastic in China can end up costing you your job.

Excerpt:

As you know, all media in China is approved by the government. And if this is published, it is like the government approving these things. A…

Thanks for pointing that out! I caught myself when I recorded it but forgot to edit it before putting out the text. Now you see why I mourn the loss of Ian the Editor!

BTW, I have always thought of we Americans as less sarcastic than, let’s say, the Irish and the Brits.