April 12, 2009, I was wakened up by the vibration of my cell phone on the bed table. It was only 5:15 am! When I saw the text message that caused the vibration, my vexation immediately turned into delight. It was a colleague of mine asking me to add him as a friend in Facebook, which I did on my cell without hesitation.

Then, I went back to sleep again, where I dreamed a strange dream. After accomplishing some tasks that I can’t remember I was dining with my colleagues and friends to celebrate. I had just gulped down a cup of Maotai liqueur when a female student worker from the Department of Modern Languages came to remind me of a test already going on that I was about to miss. My adrenalin spiking, I left my friends for the test. As if I could hear the clock ticking, I embarked on a race against time.

In my rush, however, I ended up in a dead alley. I cast about for a way out, but none of the people I asked for help proved helpful. Finally a young father carrying his child on a bicycle led me out to an open terrace, an elevated ground similar to the terrain of my Western Kentucky University campus on a hill. Pointing at the distance with sunset, he tried to describe the direction to me. Before he could utter a word, I had already found myself in a busy street down the highland on a staircase laid with slates. Now I could only see the young father gesturing wildly on a bridge in the distance.

In the street, I suddenly thought of taking a taxi, believing that taxi drivers always knew where to go the best. But to my horror and dismay, I found the streets all blocked for a carnival-like parade! I had to hit the road on foot. After winding through a narrow and crowded business street full of shops and quaintly attired foreigners, I came to the muddy country road, which was a reminiscence of a similar experience as I trod to a Yi community in China a couple of years ago.

When at long last I reached what I thought to be my destination, it turned out to be Nankai, my university in China. The huge gate seemed wide open, with a towering misty looming not far from its background. At the gate, translucent wild animals roamed about on high alert. I found myself in a situation like a hero in a fairytale or a virtual world of a computer game faced with the final but life-and-death test. Not a gamer at all, I chose to quit and, as what I used to do in my childhood, I shook myself awake from the nightmare with cold sweat.

Having the dream interpreted is not my purpose of posting it on the blog. What is revealing is the mixture of the Chinese and Western cultures to which I have been exposed as an immigrant. Although I speak very good English compared with many of my “compatriots” in the real world of an American campus life for almost a quarter of a century, the setting of my dream is still predominantly Chinese! There is not without change, which is really significant: I have long begun to speak English in my dream, but what was new to this and some other dreams I have had recently is the setting. The demarcation of my Chinese and American locales is beginning to blur. Finally I have come along way on my mental and psychological naturalization as an American.