Determined to broaden her cultural horizons and live a “fiery” life, twenty-one-year-old Rachel DeWoskin hops on a plane to Beijing to work for an American PR firm based in the busy capital. Before she knows it, she is not just exploring Chinese culture but also creating it as the sexy, aggressive, fearless Jiexi, the starring femme fatale in a wildly successful Chinese soap opera. Experiencing the cultural clashes in real life while performing a fictional version onscreen, DeWoskin forms a group of friends with whom she witnesses the vast changes sweeping through China as the country pursues the new maxim, “to get rich is glorious.” In only a few years, China’s capital is transformed. With “considerable cultural and linguistic resources” (The New Yorker), DeWoskin captures Beijing at this pivotal juncture in her “intelligent, funny memoir” (People), and “readers will feel lucky to have sharp-eyed, yet sisterly, DeWoskin sitting in the driver’s seat”(Elle).
I loved this book. It was the perfect cure for the book hangover I had when I begged a group of friends for recommendations.
Even though the author's experience takes place about 20 years prior to my own, her descriptions are SO relatable - even though she was in China and I'm in South Korea. Of course the political scene is quite different, but that's only touched on a few times in the book (mostly over the bombing of the Chinese embassy). She's honest and entertaining.
"The meeting reminded me that I was not qualified to do anything other than write academic essays." (the author, after she graduates with a B.A. in English) Yep. Been there done that. Oops, what did I do with 4 years of my life?!?
This, along with so many of her feelings as a foreigner trying to make her way in a new country. Also her descriptions of trying to be sexy for a Chinese audience. Priceless.
Reading updates
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23 May, 2016:
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23 May, 2016:
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