The title of this blog

I sent this in an email to many of my readers, but I wanted to post it here in case some one new reading this is wondering about the title:


As some of you know, my Chinese name is “Da niu” or 大牛 (pounced da-nee-oh), mainly because it sounds like ‘Daniel.’ The literal translation into Chinese however is “big bull.” Most of you probably know the saying “a bull in a china shop.” For those who don’t, it’s basically a metaphor for someone who charges into a fragile situation without much regard for the circumstances, and acts in a rash or clumsy way. While this is something I try not to do on a regular basis, I realize that despite the time I’ve spent in China in the past, I’m still a foreigner with very little knowledge of the intricacies of Chinese customs and norms. Therefore I’m bound to get myself into some fragile social situations that I simply don’t know how to handle, and maybe even break something (metaphorically). My goal is to learn as much as I can from these experiences and document the most interesting ones here. And maybe I'll even eventually get to the point where I'm no longer a big bull in a china shop.