Books: ¨101 Stories for Foreigners to Understand Chinese People¨ by Yi S. Ellis with Bryan D.Ellis.

My Chinese friend Yvonne gave me this one about a month ago. It is a very fun and easy to read book about things that an expat may not understand of the Chinese culture. It is divided in 12 sections that are:

-          First Encounters: Greetings in China

-          Chinese Modesty

-          Restaurant Etiquette

-          Everyday Etiquette and Customs

-          Beliefs

-          Food and Drink

-          Shopping and Gift-giving

-          Understanding the Chinese Family

-          What They Say vs. What They Mean

-          Doing Business in China

-          Raising Children in China

-          Health and Medicine

Each of them contains stories that happened to the writers, compiling the 101 stories.

The authors are a married couple. She, Yi S. Ellis, is a Shanghainese girl born in 1974 –like me, a tiger- that at the age of 13 moved with her Chinese family to the States. She was educated there, got her college degree there, worked, and got married to her American husband Bryan D. Ellis there. After a while they decided to move to Shanghai.  And this is what the book is about. She explains what things surprised them –especially to her husband- during all this time. It is fun to read because it briefly records experiences that the couple went through, and it doesn´t try to just list a bunch of differences.

Some of the stories I already went through them without any previous knowledge, some others are pretty new to me, and definitely is a book to read for anybody living in this interesting culture.

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Estaba preparado para leer otro libro que llevo retrasando desde hace un montón, ¨El Mundo¨ de Juan José Millás. Sin embargo justo el viernes recibí un paquete de Madrid, de mi amiga Rosa, con la novela ¨Otras voces, otros ámbitos¨ de Truman Capote. Lo acompañaba una nota que dice ¨Hello amiguito!! Ahí va un libro para una tarde de lluvia¨. El verano ha entrado a saco en Shanghái, hace hoy 33 grados y creo que tardará en llover. Así que me he saltado la recomendación y es el siguiente que he empezado. Viniendo de Rosa no puede ser malo.