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| Expat writer Kaitlin Solimine recounts her China experiences at the book launch of Unsavory Elements, part of the Capital Literary Festival Beijing. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily |
The book's publisher, China polymath and forum moderator Graham Earnshaw introduced the writers by saying expats are oft referred to as "laowai" ("old outsiders"), which neatly sums up their position at the periphery of Chinese life, even though the floating population has become an increasingly significant segment of the general population.
Whether they are English teachers, diplomats or businessmen, editor of the anthology and author of China: Portrait of a People, Tom Carter said the stories provide an antidote to the plethora of "useless" business and guide books that are outdated a year after they are published because they "immortalize our China experiences and dreams".
Carter said he took the anthology title from his own contribution to the book and is Party terminology for ne'er-do-wells. In his tale about a merry band of English teachers visiting a bordello, he realizes in this case at least that foreigners fully deserve the epithet of unsavory elements.
Even so, the book provides a variety of outlooks on China from the perspective of outsiders, many of them touching and life affirming.
Former Wall Street Journal columnist and the author of Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing, Alan Paul gave the first reading, about what turned into an adventure too far in the wilds of western Sichuan with his young brood.
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