Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China Paperback – July 1, 2013

I've never met an expat in China who didn't have his or her own extraordinary stories to tell, stories that at times made them stop and ask themselves, "What exactly am I doing here?" Every day one can experience an "only in China" moment, like waiting three hours to see a bank teller or seeing teenagers sleeping and snoring at an Internet cafe. Having lived in Singapore and Taipei, I've been struck by the cities' huge differences with China in terms of daily life. In the former two, there are rarely any surprises at all. They are great places to live, but they are also predictable. You are rarely taken aback by what you see on the street. China, as we all expats know, can be one surprise after another. We all have a battery of stories that prove it.Which brings me to Tom Carter's superb book of short stories, Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China, written by some of the most prominent writers in (or formerly in) China, like journalist and author Jonathan Watts, Alan Paul (author of Big in China), Deb Fallows (a linguist, author and wife of James Fallows), novelist and Fulbright Scholar Kaitlin Solimise, and an epilogue by the great Simon Winchester, author of The River at the Center of the World. And there are 23 others, most of them writers of incredible competence and backgrounds rich in China experience. Somehow, Tom Carter, the photographer behind the acclaimed photo-essay book China: Portrait of a People, has achieved the impossible, tracking down 28 of the most brilliant China hands and inducing them to write first-rate stories about some of their most exceptional experiences in China. Carter somehow got them all to deliver their stories, edited them and whipped them into a book that is fast paced (I read it in two or three sittings) and, like China, full of surprises.It is impossible to write a thorough review of this book. That would take 28 posts, one for each story; trying to choose which ones to mention in this review is painful, because there is so much good in so many of them. You really need to read the whole thing. If you live in China or are curious about expat life there, this is required reading.Like any book with 28 authors, there is going to be some unevenness. There was one story that I found disappointing, as I thought the author was puffing it up. One or two were too long, a couple were inconclusive and begged for more finality. But the remarkable thing is just how high the quality of nearly all the writing is and how remarkable the situations are, some of them downright bizarre.Michael Levy, author of a book I should have reviewed a long time ago, Kosher Chinese, kicks the book off with the kind of moral dilemma China is known for: Michael, teaching at an English training school for rich Chinese kids, is offered a bribe to write the students' admission letters so they can get into exclusive American boarding schools. At $1,000 an essay, it's a tempting offer. Levy takes us into the world of teaching in China and, coming back to the bribe, leaves us hanging in a surprise ending.One story that fascinated me for its sheer strangeness was by author Dominic Stevenson about his stay at a Shanghai prison for smuggling dope across the border. When I've read in the newspaper about foreigners being arrested in China and put in jail I've always wondered what they go through and how they survive. While this story isn't poetic, it paints a wonderful picture of life behind bars and the special privileges foreigners enjoy there. (Despite some of the relative comforts they enjoy, it's an experience I plan on never knowing first-hand.)The most breathtaking story is told by Susie Gordon about her night out with a fabulously rich Chinese businessman who, with no second thought, plunks down $20,000 for a few bottles of wine in a single sitting. Describing one wild night with Mr. Zhou and his son and friends, Gordon transports us into the rarefied world of China's super-rich, with all the luxuries, the trappings, the sins and temptations. She describes the behavior of Zhou's son and his obscenely wealthy friends at a lavish karaoke bar operated by a friend, Yu Haiming: "The customary libation at KTV is whiskey mixed with green tea, or watery beer from tall green bottles, but Yu Haiming's place was unsurprisingly different. He had two of the girls bring in a magnum of champagne, a little silver tray arrayed with slim white lines of powder that might have been coke but in all likelihood was ketamine, and pills nestled like candies in a brass bowl. At one point, I remember looking around at the girls, the men, the drugs and the money, and wondering how long this utopia could last: the Chinese dream in its second prodigal generation."The entire story is a tour de force. And there's much more: Deb Fallows' observations on all the things you're not allowed to do in China (the story is appropriately titled Bu Keyi), and how she and her husband came face to face with the law while shooting photos of Tiananmen Square on the 20th anniversary of the June 4 "incident." Jonathan Watts making a visit to an environmentalist in the rain forests of Xishuangbanna. Bruce Humes' truly harrowing depiction of his brutal mugging and subsequent experience in a Shenzhen hospital... The most poignant story is Kaitlin Solimine's gorgeous depiction of her "second mother" when she lived in China as an exchange student, who became a lifelong friend.Unsavory Elements is the title of editor Tom Carter's own story, a tale of his visit with two friends to a seedy Chinese brothel in the countryside on a lane called "Teen Street." The story has generated considerable controversy. The story is hilarious -- one of the friends is a consummate loser and Carter's description of him caused me to laugh out loud. It took a lot of chutzpah to write a story like this, and I give Carter credit for his daring to tell a story that many expat men experience but usually choose not to tell to the world. I enjoyed reading this fast-paced piece, but I have to say that I understand why it is so controversial. The story is farce, and to shift gears and go the politically correct route and tell about the sorrows and tragedy of prostitution would have disrupted the tone. I thought, however, that Carter could have woven at least something into this story that conveyed a bit more empathy for the girls' plight, without being preachy. It's a hard thing to do, interjecting such a serious note into such a side-splitting narrative, but I know Carter has the skill to do this. Nevertheless the story stands out as one of the highlights of the book, another look behind the scenes of what most of us will never experience ourselves.Do yourselves a favor and read the book. From high farce to heartbreaking poignancy, it's all here, and you get to peer into aspects of China you may never have known about otherwise (like Dan Washburn's trip deep into the Guizhou countryside, or Kay Bratt's moving story of a girl in a Chinese orphanage). One can only marvel at Carter's ability to get these stories written and then to draw them all together to form a unified whole. I've now read the book twice. It is a labor of love, and I think you'll love it, too.

"Unsavory Elements" edited by Tom Carter, the author of "China: Portrait of a People", has twenty-eight short memoirs that offer a balanced view of China from expatriates who have lived and/or traveled there.But the title almost misleads because not all of the authors come off as unsavory elements--most are there to learn and not to judge. Only a few of the stories in this collection were written by expatiates suffering from some form of sinophobia.I also value books that teach and I think that many of the stories in "Unsavory Elements" did that refreshingly well.For a few examples, first there was Paying Tuition by Matthew Polly who wrote: "One of the first things I had learned during my stay was that the Chinese love to negotiate. They love it so much that even after an agreement is reached, they'll often reopen negotiations just so they can do it all over again."I have visited China many times and--unlike most Westerners--I enjoy negotiating, but I didn't know about the reopening gambit. Next time, I may want to give that a try and extend the fun.In Communal Parenting by Aminta Arrington, I learned that the "Chinese have a fundamentally different relationship with their history than we Westerners. History is a subject we study in schools," and that history is not connected to who we are."Not so for the Chinese," Arrington writes. "History here [in China] is not book knowledge. Rather, their history is carried along with them as they walk along the way, an unseen burden, an invisible shadow; unconscious, and therefore, powerful."Kaitlin Solimine in Water, For Li-Ming writes about the five-months she stayed in China as a teenager in a high school, home-stay program, and it was her first time outside of the United States. For those few months, Li-Ming was her Chinese mother.Here is the gem that Solimine shares with us: "That's the thing about Chinese mothers: hidden behind their maternal expectations and critical diatribes are women who will fight to the death for you. As soon as I called her Mama, Li-Ming would be my strongest ally for the only months I knew her."From Graham Earnshaw in Playing in the Gray we discover: "There were no rules. Or rather, there was only one rule: that nothing is allowed. But the corollary, which reveals the true genius of China's love of the grey--in contrast to the black and white of the West--is that everything is possible. Nothing is allowed but everything is possible. It's just a matter of finding the right way to explain what you're doing."Reading Empty from the Outside by Susie Gordon we see that the "New China isn't shackled with the Judeo-Christian Morals of the West."Some in the West may see this lack of Judeo-Christian morals in China as a bad thing but that depends on how deeply entrenched a Westerner is in fundamentalist Christian morality. China--believe it or not--does have a moral foundation that many in the West turn a blind eye to. If you are married to a woman who was born in China and grew up there during Mao's puritanical repressive twenty-seven years as its leader, you might understand what I mean.In conclusion, there is Tom Carter's signature-title piece. In his short Unsavory Elements, Carter says in one passage, "Claude admittedly couldn't care less about Chinese culture; he was simply, like so many other foreigners in China--myself included--aimless and desperate for an income."There is so much more to this book called "Unsavory Elements" than these few examples. If you have an open mind that isn't infected by sinophobia and you want a better understanding of the Chinese, I highly recommend this collection.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a book titled ‘Unsavory Elements’, wondering if it was on a similar theme to the TV series ‘Banged Up Abroad’. What I found was that the majority of the stories in this anthology are non-controversial, where more often than not the moral compasses of the contributors are tested by the East-West conundrum, the ‘Red’ tape of Chinese bureaucracy, and the customs, etiquette and mindset of a diverse and hospitable population.That said, if you or someone you know have ever woken up in a hotel room to find a thief raking through your valuables and decided to tackle them (Peter Hessler), or as a first-time traveller to Asia checked out a go-go bar (Nury Vittachi) or more, then these lively additions to the book won’t shock you and you’ll appreciate the measured and well-intentioned way they are narrated.I particularly enjoyed reading about the love, life and loss in cross-cultural relationships, the simple yet eye-opening thrill of being on the road and sampling the unusual yet tempting platters offered up by this enigmatic land. Pete Spurrier’s train-hopping along the Silk Road with only a few yuan in his pocket is an excellent example of classic storytelling at its best.Simon Winchester capitalises on New China’s embracing of technology to exchange a breakdown in the Gobi desert for 5-star luxury. Dominic Stevenson turns the tables on the guards and avoids a brainwashing in a Shanghai prison. Kay Bratt unintentionally draws a crowd while shopping with the young Chinese orphan in her care. Susan Conley describes how relocating to Park Avenue in Beijing with her husband and two young boys is not quite the real estate its title initially suggests.Some memorable quotes in this book too, such as Graham Earnshaw’s ‘Push an issue into the Chinese gray, and it just meanders off course like a dud torpedo.’ And my particular favourite, Peter Hessler’s ‘The quail appeared to have fallen asleep.’ (You’ll see!)Editor Tom Carter scores another goal for China-themed literature with these insightful accounts from authors who have, for a variety of reasons, found themselves, heads spinning, in the Middle Kingdom.###Chris Thrall is the author of the memoir `Eating Smoke: One Man's Descent into Drug Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland.'