Dimensions
152 x 229 x 24mm
In August 2005, Alan Paul, his wife Rebecca, and their three children - then aged 2, 4, and 7 - packed their bags and traded their ordinary life in the quiet town of Maplewood, New Jersey, for a new and uncertain one as American expatriates living in the rapidly developing metropolis of Beijing, China. Anxious to shake up their increasingly staid suburban life, Alan had precipitated the move by encouraging his wife to accept an offer to become the Wall Street Journal's China Bureau Chief. While excited by the opportunity, he quickly realized that he had no idea what life as an expat in the world's newest superpower would be like or what he would do there. Little did he know that his time in China would change his life more than he ever could have imagined.
Expanded from Paul's award-winning "The Expat Life" columns for WSJ.com, BIG IN CHINA traces Alan's three and a half years in China - a time of life-changing experiences during which he reinvented himself, most prominently as the leader of a Chinese blues band called Woodie Alan. The band quickly achieved great success, and Paul soon found himself and his bandmates touring China, being named Beijing Band of the Year, and recording a CD that has earned praise from American musical luminaries from the Allman Brothers Band to ZZ Top. However, as exhilarating as the band's success was, it was only one part of the expat experience that was invigorating for Paul's entire family.
Paul also reveals the challenges he and his family faced living in a foreign land, including trying not to become stuck inside the expat bubble so many construct around themselves when living abroad, coming to terms with being one of the few men left home in the compounds when other husbands went to work in the morning, and learning to live and thrive in the most unlikely of locations. In the end, Paul views Woodie Alan as a microcosm of his entire time in China, and - by seeing an intimidating challenge as a golden opportunity rather than a burden - he believes that his time in Beijing completely rebooted his life.
BIG IN CHINA is a book for anyone who wants to go on a journey, or who merely wants to come along on one. Like books such as Iron & Silk and movies such as Lost in Translation, this book tells the story of a man learning to thrive in a new, foreign culture, with entertaining and thought-provoking results. It is a testament to the transformative power of expat life and, also, to the importance of always keeping your horizons wide and your thoughts ambitious.
