Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing

230 Pages·2011·1.79 MB·English

by  Alan Paul

Big in China
My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family,
Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in
Beijing
Alan Paul
Dedication
To Becky
Author’s Note
Some conversations and events have been condensed, but all quotes and names are
real, with the exception of Yechen. This was my Chinese teacher’s nickname, and
how he asked to be identified.
The RMB-to-dollar exchange rate varied from roughly 8:1 when we arrived in
Beijing to about 6.7:1 when we departed. I used 7:1 throughout the book.
I used China’s standard pinyin romanization method of spelling.
Contents
Dedication
Author's Note
Prologue
Chapter 1
Come to the Edge
Chapter 2
That’s What Love Will Make You Do
Chapter 3
Across the Great Divide
Chapter 4
Beautiful Sorta
Chapter 5
Say What?
Chapter 6
Key to the Highway
Chapter 7
When You Feel It, You Know
Chapter 8
Into the Great Wide Open
Chapter 9
Sad and Deep as You
Chapter 10
No Particular Place to Go
Chapter 11
Lonesome and a Long Way from Home
Chapter 12
Can’t Lose What You Never Had
Chapter 13
Cast Off All My Fears
Chapter 14
Let It Grow
Chapter 15
Visible Man
Chapter 16
Into the Mystic
Chapter 17
Bringing It All Back Home
Chapter 18
Bit by Bit (Little by Little)
Chapter 19
Them Changes
Chapter 20
I Will Dare
Chapter 21
Teach Your Children
Chapter 22
The House Is Rocking
Chapter 23
You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Chapter 24
Giant Steps
Chapter 25
Come and Go Blues
Chapter 26
Mountain High, River Deep
Chapter 27
Beijing Blues
Chapter 28
Games People Play
Chapter 29
Big in China
Chapter 30
Bittersweet Surrender
Chapter 31
Tick Tock
Chapter 32
Baby Please Don’t Go
Chapter 33
Tomorrow Never Knows
Epilogue
I Shall Return
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher