As a Baby Duck Listens to Thunder: A Foreign Expert in English, Guangzhou China, 1982-83

As a Baby Duck Listens to Thunder is a love story.... My position as a Foreign Expert in English was my first real teaching job in a career that spanned more than thirty years. I could never have imagined China would be a destination in my life, but it was. And at such a moment in history! Chairman Mao had been dead only six years. The evil Gang of Four had been tried only the year before. The horrors of the Cultural Revolution were still close in everyone's memory, and people feared that the post-Mao moment of comparative freedom was a random blip. Deng Xiao Ping was determined that China would modernize and enter the world as a competitor. Every single penny of foreign exchange that came to China was used to buy technology to further China's modernization. I was one of those bits of technology, too.Propelled by a consuming wanderlust, I took my ignorance and inexperience with me, and ended up receiving some of life's great gifts. My students' diligence, curiosity and courage inspired me, and, in turn, I inspired them. The bridge between our cultures was a shared love of poetry and beautiful language. As for China? China was the great love of my life. Part of this Kindle edition is a Youtube video of the slides that awakened the stories. REVIEW FROM AMAZON INDIA: 5.0 out of 5 starsBig Brother was our friend
2 September 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
A very interesting memoir of a foreign teacher of English in China in the early '80s, just as China was opening up. I find it especially interesting because of the close parallels between India and China. The stories of culture shock, and the friendships that can start when you go beyond it, lift this book beyond most personal memoirs. It is interesting how some of the book still trmains accurate about 21st century China.