I visit foreign websites pretty regularly. I went home at Christmas and didn't have any of the issues you had. We even talked about films from last year. Maybe you need to visit some foreign websites more often?

Hmmm... No

Edit: No more out of touch than I would feel when I would come back from any of my military deployments.

Double post

What kind of new words? Slang?

Yes, a lot. A lot of new "celebrities" I never heard about, movies, a boatload of TV shows, some slang, trends I have no idea about. I read news from back home, but just a quick look, I skip the gossip/media stuffs. I don't feel bad about it ^^

Justine Bieber and Mike695 are both Canadian, so I guess I'd say that there's no culture to lose touch of

Somewhat, but not really. 

I am made an effort to keep the best of my culture and open to new ideas from other cultures. I don't watch Chinese movies (because they suck horribly, well most).

Maybe the more recent stuff, I am not too sure about but part of pop-culture would only be useful for talking to like 13-16 year olds, would it? 

Cultures don't change over a few years, even decades.

Personally, I've never felt more intimately attached and ready to defend my own culture than after years in the void that is China, which I take as a shock therapy and a good lesson about what happens when people give up.

You mean out of touch with new social trends/phenomenons? Most definitely yes! Not only from my country but also global trends.

In most of the world new social trends spread quickly in the era of the internet and social networks, except in China and a few other countries, because of censorship and ethnocentrism.

For e.g. Gangnam Style because it was the biggest musical success worldwide in the past 5 years. It spread very quickly in most of the world, a month after the original release of the song and clip most urbanites and youth heard of it across Asia, North America, Europe and likely most other places. On Youtube the clip quickly became the most viewed and liked video ever. Two months after the original release there were hundred of thousands of videos of people from all over the world performing the dance.

Except in China, it was unknown until after the hype around it faded away in most of the world. The Chinese knock-off versions are more popular than the original here although they totally missed what made it so big. And there are actually Chinese who believe that it was originally a Chinese song and Psy stole the idea.

No joke for the last sentence, I have had Chinese telling me that some Chinese artist made it first and Psy stole his idea, when I asked to hear the original Chinese version they were unable to provide me with it. Also Chinese taking pride from it because "Korean culture comes from Chinese culture" WTF?! Should Brits take personal pride for everything that the US produces?

China is always late because of censorship and ethnocentrism.

Mostly just pop culture I think, which doesn't count because I wouldn't pay it a lot of attention if I was at home. I don't care what teeny band is the latest thing or what brand of shoes the hip young dudes are all wearing now.

Everything else I'm up on thanks to the internet.

I would say, if anything, I'm more in touch with my culture than I ever was at home. I see what I'm missing now and appreciate it all the more.

I was never really into pop culture so I'm about as ignorant of that now as I was when I lived in America. In terms of current events, I read a lot of articles so I'm pretty up to date about what's going on in the world and back home. 

Rather than being alienated from American culture, I feel more alienated from a lot of my old friends. When I go back to visit, we all hang out together but there's the clear realization that they've all moved on in so many different directions with their lives since I've been in China. I never know what to expect from different people and things won't go back to the way they were before I headed off to China. When you haven't seen someone for two years, the ways they change (for better or worse) jump out more obviously than if you were there the whole time seeing the changes happen more gradually. For example, there was a friend I was very close to before leaving for China, was still very close to when I visited the states the first time but then after 2 years it felt we had drifted miles apart. We eagerly anticipated seeing each other but when we finally hung out for the first time in two years something was just off. We haven't spoken in 6 months and I don't even know if we'll hang out again. She's been through a lot over those 2 years and so have I. We just didn't click the way we used to. I guess long separations can do that to people. 

Australia Day has just recently come and gone and I have to admit it didn't really come up on my radar.

And when I go home for my annual visit I do feel some kind of disconnect, like things are moving on without me.  Which they are.

An expat's life has it's ups and downs, but I'm living it.

Just wish China had more going for it.