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

I guess the main thing I took away from this book was the ordinariness of life in Beijing for most people (or at least DeWoskin's friends). There certainly seems to be no climate of fear.
There is grumbling of course, anger at the government, at foreigners, at poverty, but that's a human universal.
Even the standard village-level political corruption one always hears about in China seems muted in Beijing (again, at least for her friends, maybe for the poor it is much more of an issue).

The thing that struck me most about this book (reinforcing what has struck me reading other material) is that China is changing faster than both the US and Islamic countries. Yet it doesn't seem to be generating the political backlash one sees in these show more other countries. Why should this be so?

One possibility is that the government clampdown, limits to what people can do and communicate with each other, prevents it, but this seems unlikely.
Arab regimes appear to be more aggressive in this respect, although, of course, they may be less competent.
The reason, I suspect, is the past, in particular the fairly recent Cultural Revolution, and that this has made people mistrustful of simple, sound-bite solutions to complicated problems, and basically more sensible and politically mature, more willing to accept imperfection and compromise. The question of interest, then, is how long till these lessons are forgotten? show less

There is much interesting in this book, a chronicle of DeWoskin's years in China post-college-graduation, working for a PR company and as an American seductress in the soap opera, Foreign Babes in Beijing. DeWoskin went to China with some understanding of both language and culture, but even so, faced a substantial number of difficulties in living in Beijing.

This was a quick and enjoyable read, with much interesting detail on the author's struggle to understand and be understood, to hook up utilities and learn to bargain, and to find a community of friends and lovers in a rapidly-changing city. DeWoskin's growing patriotism could be irritating; any sort of anti-American sentiments seemed to rouse her ire, with less reflection on what it show more means to be an American abroad. Interestingly, she seems to be more hesitant about any possibility to appear as an American stereotype (rich, rude, obnoxious) at the beginning of her time in China, and this comes through less during the course of the memoir. The difficulty of living in another culture appears to wear on her as time goes on. To her credit, she is an honest writer, and doesn't flinch when recounting events that she regrets. One of the most powerful moments in this memoir comes when one of the author's friends dies in a car accident, after leaving a party drunk, and post-confrontation with his ex-girlfriend (whom DeWoskin had introduced to him). DeWoskin describes her inability to see him in the hospital, and her (and her friend's) subsequent trips home to the United States (thereby missing their friend's funeral) in a manner that distills the experience of "foreignness" regardless of one's level of acculturation to a different country. show less

Despite the fact that I am part Chinese, and I have lived in China(I am Canadian) for almost 3-4 years.., I don't recommend this book.

If you have lived/worked in China extensively, you will know that most of what she says/talks about is only from the perspective from a super upper class white female in Beijing. I bought this book on a trip to HK because I was interested about more stories from Expats like us in China. True stories, down to earth, and from multiple perspectives. I want stories from people that have really gotten a feel of China and know what they are talking about.

She didn't accomplish any of that. I was treated to a story of a upper class white female's wanna be attempt at a sex and the city in Beijing. If that was the show more point, fine, write me something saucy, spicy and exciting. But it wasn't. China memoirs from expats usually take the form of 4 stages. Random interest in China, difficulty fitting in/understand, finally getting a hang of things/having fun, the crash with something absolutely un-opposible in China, and reflection. She never passed stage 2. Even to the end of the book, this TV star only got as far as "I can understand how you feel", and "bitter sweet memories".

I have the feeling that she never got passed her xenophobic feelings that immigrants feel when they move to another country. People like that never survives.

In the end, her book showcases why a lot of people fails to understand about China. It also felt like a book about a girl trying to sow her oats in a country where nobody knew her so it won't come back to hunt her. If her father is who she says he is, I feel bad because she could have done better than this.

I don't recommend this book, not even if you want to know how life is like in China. I would recommend it if you are trying to figure out what NOT to do in China. It's unrealistic, boring, and a bad attempt to capture the wave of recent interest in China. show less

Dewoskin was just out of college in the early nineties and determined to have an interesting life. Since her Michigan family had spent a lot of time traveling in China when she was a child, she decided to take a PR job with an American company in Beijing. She planned to stay until something else came along, but instead, she was asked to audition for a part in a nighttime soap opera called Foreign Babes in Beijing a "Dallas" type show in which she played a seductive American who lures a Chinese man away from his family, exposing him to the "open-minded" ways of the Western world. The show made Dewoskin famous in China, though the bad pay kept her from leaving her regular job, and the character she played caused controversy in Western show more countries.
She spent many years in China, made Chinese and ex-pat friends, fell in love, argued about cultural differences and tried to figure out how to fit in with a city she really loved. The author writes about the perception of the Chinese to Western people and culture, their perception of Americans and culture, and her perception of the Chinese ways. She discusses the ways the average person lives and the people she befriends who live outside the norm. Really interesting to me and has lots of information that is surprising, yet still would be good for the casual travel reader. show less

When I first saw the title of the book, Foreign Babes in Beijing, I didn’t know what to expect. Its cover was racy but facetious. I was confused about the title. Was it implying local Chinese women weren’t babes?

The first few chapters cleared up the confusion. This non fiction book is about the author, Rachel, and her first few years as an expatriate in China. Foreign Babes in Beijing is actually the title of a Chinese soap opera she acted in.

I had read and grown tired of the usual books I read about China. Mostly written by Chinese Americans, the stories they shared were good and usually touching, but after reading so many of them, they soon started melting together in my mind. Foreign Babes, written by a western hand offered a show more different perspective of China. Sometimes I identified with Rachel, since I’ve lived in the US for most of my life, and sometimes I identified with the Chinese locals.

Rachel’s view of China shows Chinese perception of foreigners and their treatment of them. It’s something that I had an inkling of, but not the full details. Each chapter contains an excerpt for the script from the soap opera. Some of them are amusing because of the Chinese stereotype of how foreign women are like.

Foreign Babes in Beijing is an entertaining and eye-opening read and is a nice change of pace from the usual books on China written by Chinese Americans. It made me think about moving back there, but not living the typical expatriate life — I’d rather live like a local. show less

As memoirs go, this story of a recent Columbia grad who ends up starring as a Western hussy in China's most popular soap opera is a fascinating one. I learned a lot about what modern day life in China is like from this book. It was particlarly shocking for me to read that some people there don't keep journals out of fear what they write might be used against them by the government. Still, the tone did get a little academic for me at times and I wish the author had included more of her own personal joureny within her very compelling observations about modern China.

I bought this book on a whim in the San Francisco airport on my way to Bali this past summer. I didn’t start it until November, but my friend read it before me and spent every chance she got telling me all the funny parts in it and how interesting it was. When I finally got around to picking it up for myself, I was no less impressed.
I actually had a bit of buyer’s remorse after I first bought it, since I was afraid I had bought a click lit novel, but just as the quote says on the exterior, “there’s wisdom inside.” Reading this book taught me so much about China that I never knew or even thought about before. I know a lot about Japanese culture, but I had never read anything about the Chinese lifestyle before and was amazed by show more all the interesting facts the author pointed out and all the awkward (and usually funny) situations she got in.
I plan on moving to Japan sometime in the next 5 years, and I expect my life will be a lot like hers; living in a small apartment, struggling with the language and becoming culturally confused around every corner, just to leave in 3 or 4 years from the culture shock catching up to me.
I gave this book 3 ½ stars because though there’s not a lot of plot, you learn so much about China it’s like you’re reading a textbook sometimes, but it’s all explained while being intertwined with the author’s life, friends and daily struggles. show less