Chicken Same Duck Talk: Diary of an Australian in China

Thinking of teaching in China?

I wasn’t either!

Regardless, not only did life take me there, but also my expected one-year teaching stint turned into a nearly decade-long stay, for reasons which all lie within the pages of this highly accessible travelogue.

Whether you’re planning to teach, do business with, make friends with or marry a Chinese person, this book gives useful insights into their language, culture, cities, customs, food, education system and business practices. Why? Because I knew NOTHING about these things before going – therefore, you learn it all with me, as I did, discovery by discovery.

Thirteen years in the making, and very personally written, this is an average Australian’s reaction to street-level life in contemporary China – the good and the bad, the beautiful and the not-so-beautiful, the euphoric and the what-the-hell-was-that, all laced with a dry, somewhat absurdist sense of humour.

Very importantly, I didn’t go straight to Shanghai or Beijing - I travelled extensively, and saw the real China, not just the westernised metropolises. Places like Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Luoyang, Yangshuo, Chimahu, Wuhan, Xuancheng and Yulin gave me a more rounded view of a country that’s very hard to generalise about, and, of course, this knowledge goes straight to you, the reader.