John’s Blog

I’ve got a bunch of reviews backed up, so am going to do a few brief ones before writing about a couple of fantastically amazing books I ended 2007 with. I got this memoir from Gen after our first trip to China last year — it’s an accounting of DeWoskin’s time in Beijing several years back — maybe 1999 or so — when she became a little famous in a Chinese soap opera about foreign attitudes called “Foreign Babes in Beijing.” Very readable account, but probably mostly/only because I spent a bit of time in China this year and am still in the phase of initial reactions — and I’ve heard so much about how Beijing is completely transforming itself every day that it’s neat to read an eyewitness account of a few years before I got to be there. Worth reading if you’re interested in Chinese contemporary culture.