2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

Focus> Life & Art> Content
Tuesday, April 09, 2019, 11:58
Years of letters
By Cheng Yuezhu
Tuesday, April 09, 2019, 11:58 By Cheng Yuezhu

(PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Xiamen University professor William Brown has released his new book, Off the Wall-How We Fell for China, which is a compilation of around 50 letters he wrote to his family and friends between 1988 and 2017. The letters recount his past three decades living and working in Xiamen, Fujian province, which the American academic calls home.

"Xiamen is my 'first hometown' because, in the United States, the longest I lived in one place was seven years but I've lived in Xiamen for 30 years."

William Brown, Xiamen University professor

"Xiamen is my 'first hometown' because, in the United States, the longest I lived in one place was seven years but I've lived in Xiamen for 30 years," Brown says.

The book, launched in December, has been published by China's Foreign Languages Press in both English and Chinese, and includes Brown's family photos, images of his original printed letters and hand-drawn illustrations. Brown says part of the title, "off the wall", is a phrase that means "eccentric or unconventional" that faithfully captures his experiences in China.

In the book, Brown talks of buying vanilla at a paint store, buying a pedicab for his daily travel and learning the taboos of Xiamen culture, among other stories, narrated with much wit.

ALSO READ: President Xi lauds expat professor in Xiamen

The Chinese title, Wo Bu Jianwai, translates as "I am not an outsider".

When someone calls Brown a laowai (slang for foreigner), he answers by saying he is a laonei, or "insider", his own coinage.

Brown says he witnessed and even participated in China's economic transformation, and it has been constantly refreshing his perception of China.

Brown (left) signs an agreement with the China International Publishing Group for a future book series on March 20, 2019. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Born in 1956, Brown grew up dreaming of migrating to Australia at age 8 and wanted to be stationed in Greenland at the US Air Force. Little did he know that the quirks of fate would lead him to Xiamen, a city he had only heard of months before he actually embarked on his journey to Fujian province.

During his years with the US Air Force, he was assigned to Taiwan instead of Greenland in 1976. He became intrigued by the Chinese mainland and wanted to learn more about it.

Brown later went back to the US to complete his master's and doctoral degrees, and opened his own business.

In 1988, he sold his company and traveled with his wife and two sons to Xiamen University, a rare campus in China at the time that provided housing to foreign students with families. The university employed Brown as a teacher of MBA courses in 1989, and in 1992, he became Fujian province's first foreigner to be granted a permanent residency in China.

Brown says he started writing this series of letters and sharing his experiences because his family and friends in the US did not understand his decision to live in Fujian. These recipients helped the publication of the book by sending such letters and photos back to Brown so that he could make copies.

Over the years, Brown has written more than 1,500 letters. They are his "love letters to China".

Brown has published more than 10 books, recording and introducing the sights and sounds of China. President Xi Jinping presented Brown the award of honorary citizenship of Fujian in 2001, when Xi was governor of the province. In January, Brown sent his new book to Xi, with a letter attached.

William Brown, Xiamen University professor. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

In his reply to Brown's letter, Xi wrote: "You said in the letter that you are very optimistic about China's future. I believe that you will witness a more prosperous and beautiful China, one that increasingly benefits the world and mankind, and the stories of China you write will surely be more exciting."

READ MORE: China's long-term goals bear fruit

In order to deepen cooperation with Brown, the China International Publishing Group signed an agreement with him for a future book series on March 20. At the signing event, Lu Cairong, deputy director of the group, awarded Brown for his "special contribution" and said the group will provide more writers with a multilingual platform to tell their stories about China to the world.

Contact the writer at chengyuezhu@chinadaily.com.cn

Share this story

CHINA DAILY
HONG KONG NEWS
OPEN
Please click in the upper right corner to open it in your browser !