Customer Reviews

Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China

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Having lived for much of the period from 2001 - 2004 in Suzhou, (about 50 miles west of Shanghai), I can categorically say that Rachel DeWoskin's new book, FOREIGN BABES IN CHINA, gets nearly everything right when it comes to Chinese culture and interpersonal relations. Her book is a fascinating account of a city, a country, and a culture in transition. The people around her, and she herself, suffer the contradictions of tradition versus modernity, socialism versus entrepreneurial capitalism, blind patriotism versus Westernization, and government control versus individual freedom, yet everyone zooms ahead to find their own way even as the book's timeline approaches the millennium.

Ms. DeWoskin arrives in Beijing on something of a lark, a college grad with an English degree, a little Mandarin, and a desire for something adventurous. She has taken a position with the Beijing office of an international public relations firm (we later learn that "P.R." sounds uncomfortably like the Chinese word for an unflattering body part) but quickly finds the work empty of content. She unexpectedly gets offered a spot as one of the two foreign female leads in a new Chinese soap opera entitled "Yang Niu Zai Beijing," or "Foreign Babes in Beijing." She is duped into signing a contract for far less than she's worth to the producers (there are still relatively few attractive young Western women in Beijing in 1995), and a series of acting misadventures and cast romances ensue. DeWoskin can barely separate her real-life feelings for her hunky co-star Wang Ling from their respective romantic roles in the soap opera. In the end, "Foreign Babes" is a huge success throughout China, and Ms. Dewoskin is recognized everywhere she goes as Jiexi, the "loose" Western woman who steals a married Chinese man (Wang Ling's character, Tianming) from his wife and takes him to America.

The author eventually quits her P.R. job and takes on a series of small acting and spokesperson roles, and even takes a brief turn as a runway model. Along the way, she meets and briefly profiles four young Beijingers (two female and two male, despite oddly labeling their chapters, "Biographies of Model Babes") and describes their lives, beliefs, and aspirations. Each is fiercely independent and nontraditional, seeking to find their own identity and purpose in a newly-opened society. These four people are sometimes misinformed and often obstinate, even foolishly obstreperous, but there's no doubt they are brave, going where relatively few in their country have gone before.

DeWoskin develops close relationships with each of her four Beijingers, including a live-in relationship with the actor/screenwriter Zhao Jun. The last one-third of the book details her post-Jiexi life, which seems to devolve into clubbing and bar-hopping punctuated by occasional vague hints at working. Two tragedies -- the sudden death of a close Chinese friend juxtaposed against the mistaken U.S./NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade -- bring DeWoskin's relationships and her Chinese life to an abrupt end just as the 20th Century is drawing to a close. It is time to go home, to find her place in her native country.

Ms. DeWoskin tells her story in casual prose with easy pacing. Her writing is sometimes poignant and other times humorous. The reader feels her confusion about Chinese life and language; she doesn't even learn until later that her Chinese name, Du Ruiqiu (Du for DeWoskin, Ruiqiu to sound like Rachel), actually means "Bumper Harvest." She finds huge cultural gaps and differences with everyone around her. She makes repeated cultural faux pas, but muddles through nonetheless, just like any American in her place. Interlaced with her story are bits and pieces of Chinese history and language. Ms. DeWoskin also offers a number of surprisingly on-target, passing observations about Chinese life and culture: the importance of face, women covering their mouths when laughing, lack of winter heating, foreigners' prices, women holding hands but not hugging, and a host of others. Combined, these little bits add to a greater whole, creating a "Beijing atmosphere" that effectively complements her personal story.

It is hard not to see FOREIGN BABES IN CHINA as a coming of age story, both for the naïve, young college graduate author and for the country in which she is perpetually an outsider. She uses China and the Chinese for her own adventure story as surely as they use her for her "exotic" foreignness. This book is also a story about cross-cultural personal relationships, about roles assumed and played out, about what is thought and said, and not said, between any two people, complicated a hundredfold by cultural differences and ways of thinking. In the end, Ms. DeWoskin's confused, conflicted, and ultimately lost relationship with Zhao Jun may well serve as a metaphor for the instability, and perhaps the utter hopelessness, of the larger Sino-American relationship.

Rachel DeWoskin spent a great part of the 1990s in Beijing, China first as a post-college lost soul looking for a good job opportunity, and finally becoming a national soap opera star and remaining within the powerful and frustrating lure that China holds over many Western expats.

I myself spent the year 2000 in Beijing as a study-abroad from college and a part-time English teacher. I gobbled up "Foreign Babes" as soon as I read the review in EW magazine. I can categorically say, as a relatively kindred spirit to Ms. DeWoskin in many respects, that she nailed Beijing in every possible aspect 100% correctly. I usually refrain from overgeneralizations, but let me put it this way: my personal journal from my time in China reads almost exactly like this book.

There is a bizarre love-hate that most Americans in China have with their host country. At once exotic, larger-than-life, enormous, confining, frustrating, ancient, ultra-modern and flagrantly obsessed with Western imports the China of DeWoskin's pages is the China that anyone who up and goes to Beijing right now will find. She even hits on and offers some fascinating analysis on the difference between Chinese and Western patriotism, linguistic nuances that make intimate communication nearly unattainable between the two cultures, and delivers beautiful character studies of wily Western expats and locals from all walks of life. Her characterizations of the people that populated her dusty, seamy Beijing are so honest and human that I could swear I've met them (in some cases I probably have, of course). Oh, and she's right about the ease of attaining celebrity in China. Though I wasn't on TV, I had a friend who wound up a talk show host in southern China and I myself never was able to shake off the constant stares and comments from Chinese shocked that I could speak their language.

There was a slight slow point in the last quarter of the book, in which the expansive nature of the narrative caved in a tad as the author focused in on a small group of her friends, however I took this in stride and do not fault her for it, as it becomes apparent after some reflection that the individuals on whom she focused were integral to her life there. The culmination of the narrative in the awful Chinese embassy bombing incident in Serbia in 1999 is absolutely perfect even in its dreadful raminications, as it affords DeWoskin an opportunity to wrap up her story with a bang, and certainly no pun is intended here.

I can see where some of the negative reviewers may be coming from, as I myself am biased in my inclination toward acceptance and engrossment in this book considering my own experience in Beijing. Perhaps not all readers will find the story and characters as real and endearing as I, but for the reader seeking to know what it is like to live in Beijing as an American or even for those who, like me, are looking to revisit the miasmic cultural enormity that is Beijing, China I can offer my highest recommendations for "Foreign Babes in Beijing."

I teach modern Chinese history at a Midwestern university.
I discovered Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China by Rachel DeWoskin when I heard the author's interview on public radio earlier this summer. I was intrigued by De Woskin's comments in the interview and wanted to know more about her experiences. I have to admit that I have watched many a trashy soap opera in China whenever I visit and so I picked up the book for fun this summer expecting a light summer read. I was quite surprised by DeWoskin's insights, however, and will definitely assign this book for my class, "The United States and China." This is not a book by a China specialist for an audience of China specialists but DeWoskin clearly did her homework for this book. This is one of the best memoirs ever written by a casual American visitor to China.

DeWoskin explains early in the book that she felt a connection to China. Her family often spent time in China when she was growing up due to her father's academic research interests in China. Yet this book goes far beyond most visitor memoirs I have seen. It carefully interweaves common language phrases in use during her stay with aspects of pop culture, business and social interactions, Chinese perceptions of Americans, and key political events. The overall effect is a rich mosaic of China in the 1990s that Americans all too often miss or mis-read.

What makes this book so useful to students is that DeWoskin presents an honest and often very entertaining view of her life in Beijing as she tries to find her way. She does not try to hide the mistakes she makes adapting her "classroom Mandarin Chinese" to Beijing slang (not the usual vocabulary students learn in school!) or relationship difficulties with Chinese business associates, friends, and intimates.

I would recommend this book for anyone planning to work or study in China.

This book is not as fluffy as the title may suggest. DeWoskin is very insightful about Chinese culture (at least for the period it covers and primarily for twenty-somethings). She also captured a really important time of transition that bridges the post-Tiannenman crackdown and the seeming increasing openness in China that we see today. As an insider living in the country, she describes incredible contrasts between the evolving consumerist, Americanized city life and the (to a degree) still traditional living conditions for those in the outskirts and rural areas. She also holds no illusions that this is a fundamental shift in Chinese policy and culture, but a continuing process that has gone through many iterations over thousands of years. For all this seriousness, it is a fun, engaging read that is not only well-written, but also casual and free-flowing. Because it is based on her personal journals, it is primarily the experience of one, twenty-something American, but she also includes enough research, history, social and literary context to give it some weight and heft.

This is not a travel book about China. It is too specific about a time (the 90s) and a place (Beijing), about social interactions among "expats" and "locals", and very much about roles and confusing roles.
RDW tells us how she came to Beijing as a very young expatriate executive in 1994, how she got "discovered" as a TV actress, how she met Chinese and foreign friends, how she left after 5 years that must have changed her. It is a very personal recollection.
Since I can relate to many of the elements of the "story", I enjoyed RDW's book very much. I was there at the same time, in the same office building, in the same party places, markets etc. Probably we met at least in the CITIC elevator, but we did not meet due to too many other differences - age maybe the most important among them. I remember vaguely the stories about her soap experience. I never watched the Foreign Babes show, but I remember the press coverage.
RDW is a great writer, very observant and with a tremendous sense of humour. Every China expat should be interested. Everybody with an interest in intercultural encounters should be very interested. Everybody interested in China beyond the numbers should love it.

Rachel DeWoskin arrived in Beijing during the mid-90s, among the first wave of Westerners to see the city since the protests and reprisals at Tiananmen Square a few years earlier. During her stay, China relented from rigid socialism, opened up to foreign capital, and incorporated western business practices. On one level, "Foreign Babes" is the story of this process. DeWoskin's descriptions of these cultural convulsions are pithy and delightful. From the introduction of Coke and McDonald's (and the resulting obesity epidemic), to the latest trends in Chinese rock music and performance art, she was a witness and an insider - the perfect guide.

DeWoskin was not just an anonymous tourist, though, she was a pop-sensation. Starring as an American temptress in China's version of Beverly Hills 90210, her weekly seductions were seen by half a billion people each week. Hundreds of fans mobbed her on the streets of Beijing and followed her through stores, buying whatever random products she put in her bag.

But the heart of "Foreign Babes" is not the fascinating backdrop of Beijing in bloom, or the glamorous and sexy soap opera, but the relationships between the characters. Sparring across a huge divide of language, politics, and culture, they must shed stereotypes and find a personal space in which to understand each other - not as American or Chinese, but as individuals and friends. DeWoskin possesses an astute social sensibility, a pitch-perfect ear for conversation, and the gift of spot-lighting the most awkward - and revealing - moment in any interaction.

Just going to China after college was adventurous. Signing on for the TV-show was audacious. Most impressive, however, was DeWoskin's ability to bridge the gaps and surround herself with friends in a foreign country. Impressive, but not surprising, since the author's warmth and grace are apparent on every page.

Very well-written and some good insights. The author is perceptive and had some interesting experiences in 1990's China (change in China is so rapid that her account is historical, not contemporary, already). One forgets at times how young she is until she has to deal with a personal tragedy at the end of the book and reverts to childhood. The only flaw is that the author has been somewhat corrupted by political correctness which sometimes leads to paralysis in her thinking. She's a foreigner in China, just accept that and go forward -- unfortunately, she gets over-analytical at times, tying herself in knots about what the Chinese will think of her foreigness and navel-gazing about her own motives. Trust your instincts and just be yourself. Skim over these parts and the rest of the book is interesting and well-written. Highly recommended.

The basic premise of an innocent abroad landing a starring role in a cheesy Chinese soap opera was enough to get me to read the book. And that element of the book doesn't disappoint: it's fun, the dialogue at the end of each chapter is silly, and I enjoyed googling a little bit of video from the program.

However, really this book is not very well written. The soap opera is just a small part of the actual novel, and mostly comes in a big chunk at the beginning. A whole hell of a lot is given to the author talking about the generalities of China, in a very cliched way. Hey, no kidding, it's big, and the pace of change is very quick? It comes off like reading a Wikipedia page. The author also is very quick to give sweeping, shallow opinions on Chinese and American media.

The author also talks about her relations with other characters, there's a girl who likes foreign guys and thinks China is backwards, a guy who is very nationalistic and given to page-long speeches about it, and no it's not interesting.

Really it's a novel written by a 1st person narrator who portrays herself sympathetically, but isn't very sympathetic. This is particularly true towards the end, when she doesn't attend the funeral of a close friend who she was with when he died, because she had to go on vacation.

It's a very sharp contrast to the rest of the novel, in which she depicts herself as a naive but good-hearted innocent abroad. She excuses her own behavior with a shrug, but it feels manipulative and false. There's a movie in pre-production, and really I think the story would be better told in a more objective 3rd person, and with less silly exposition.

This is one of the most entertaining and informative books I have read in a very long time. I have been to Beijing once and I now live in the very multicultural city of Toronto. The author deftly weaves the scripted story of the soap opera in which she acts with her real story on the streets and clubs and offices of Beijing. In a style of writing that is clear but deeply nuanced and humorous, she relates the lives of young men and women in a rapidly changing China, dealing with their own kind of culture shock, even as she deals with hers.

The chapter "Model workers" talks of the emerging, very non-Maoist profession of runway models. Brief, capsule biographies of the author's friends in China who are both typical and extraordinary, painters, actors, and fellow office workers, provided me insights that I will long carry with me. The story is told in part with quotations from her actual conversations, quotations from the show script, lyrics from popular songs, and brief quips about historical women recorded in the ancient "Lives of Eminent Women." Together these constribute to a fine tapestry that reveals many truths about our complex multicultural lives without judgement and with considerable affection.

This book is both smart and fun. On the one hand it is about an American babe who stars in a Chinese TV soap with funny stories to tell; and on the other, a glimpse into China's vast cultural landscape that is shifting as we speak. The seduction by the foreign babe is a metaphor for the impact of the West on the middle kingdom. DeWoskin has a smooth as silk grasp of language that is kind to the reader. Well done.