Notes from the Other China

Sound Bite

By turns irreverent, informative and amusing, a dauntless young man captures precisely the experience of the expatriate in Asia. Notes is a humorous yet insightful romp based on the authorÃ??'s decade-long experience as an English teacher in Taiwan, the "other China," and Korea, with expeditions to other parts of Asia. His encounters are puzzling and sometimes infuriating, but with a lively appreciation for the absurd he cuts through the frustration to moments of splendor and stirring human warmth.

About the Book

Parfitt takes a look at Korea's fever-pitch nationalism and gives an assessment of the worldÃ??'s only Chinese democracy, has a run-in with a Nepalese rhinoceros ' and one or two equally volatile Vietnamese tour guides ' and ponders the actions and reactions of the people he meets. In these pages he shares his encounters with language students from all walks of life, hotel-keepers, and ' sometimes weirdest of all ' his fellow travelers, in some of the less commonly visited parts of Asia. In a style that may be compared to early Bill Bryson ("You can't help but enjoy his writing, for its cheer and buoyancy, and for the frequent demonstration of his peculiar, engaging turn of mind." ' Ottawa Citizen), Parfitt endures the jolts of traveling where there is no real travel industry, touring where there is no real tourist industry, and teaching map-reading skills where there is no Western-style logic and adults freely admit they can hardly find their way to work and back. He shares it all with the reader, over a beer, and all is well again with the world. Then he's off to look for more. Steering clear of politics, Parfitt focuses on the individual humans he meets. This is a glimpse of real life in the shadow of China, neither a dry-as-dust academic treatise nor a heroic tale of surviving the Cultural Revolution. Simple people greet the author with everything from spontaneous gestures of friendship to sudden slaps, from openness and warmth to rock-headed obtuseness, and the picture emerges of a fractured, diverse humanity muddling along and still getting by ' together ' in spite of all. Traveling with this mild-mannered Canadian, we go through much that is puzzling, frustrating, and down-right infuriating, yet we always comes through with a smile. Readers find they have enjoyed a diverse journey that covers a very broad terrain.