Publisher's Weekly Review
American teacher Arrington (editor, Saving Grandmother's Face) nicely demystifies the Chinese language for English speakers in this down-to-earth memoir chronicling her family's stint in the Chinese province of Shandong on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Moving to the edge of Tai'an, a university town at the base of Mount Tai, south of Beijing, Arrington and her career Army husband had finagled jobs as English teachers at the Taishan Medical College, located in a gray, polluted backwater where they were issued an exceedingly small apartment for their five-person (three-child) household. In fact, their middle, kindergarten-age daughter, Grace, was adopted from China, initially prompting the author's interest in learning Chinese. Arrington's subsequent straightforward lessons in very basic and key concepts proves a fascinating entree into the Chinese mindset, for example, terms such as population (she stimulated an uneasy discussion in class about the skewed male-female ratio resulting from China's one-child policy); the dreaded exam, dictated by the one and only one textbook; and the notion of God, which was rendered as "the emperor above." Arrington was frankly shocked in the rural province by the rudimentary "squatties," lack of heating, and unenlightened view about women's leadership abilities (one proverb ran: "Hair long, worldview short"), though she was ultimately charmed by the decent, good-hearted folk and the romantic, practical ramifications of home rendered in the Chinese character as a roof over a pig. Agent, Alexis Hurley, InkWell Management. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
After her husband Chris' stint in the army ended, Arrington, Chris, and their three children, including their adopted Chinese daughter, Grace, moved to the small town of Tai'an in the Shandong province of China. The family of five must make do with a house so small that the whole family can't fit around the dinner table, but Arrington finds she loves teaching English classes at the local university, and she immerses herself in the study of the Chinese language. Arrington is fascinated by the written language, in particular, having fallen in love with the complex characters when she learned the traditional character for home places the symbol for roof over the symbol for pig. Despite her love of the language and culture of China and her thrill at introducing her family to it, Arrington stumbles over some of the more ingrained traditions, such as the reluctance of young men and women to break free of their parents' influence and the way women put themselves second to men. A fresh, illuminating look at contemporary China.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
When her husband retired from the U.S. military, Arrington (editor, Saving Grandmother's Face: And Other Tales from Christian Teachers in China) followed her dream of moving to China with her family. Her memoir includes the typical scenes of Americans trying to learn a new language and adapt to the customs of an unfamiliar land, but it is unique in other ways-for example, in Arrington and her husband's adoption of a Chinese daughter before their move. The book covers the family's first two years in China, with their three young children in elementary school and Arrington and her husband teaching at a Chinese college. Each chapter is arranged around a specific Chinese word that articulates the theme of that chapter, as the family experiences culture shock, settles in, and comes to love their new home with its rich history and difficult language, and as Arrington comes to appreciate the sense of freedom living in China has given her. VERDICT A delightful tale of an American family trying to find the real China. Readers of travel literature and those interested in Chinese culture and history will find this an entertaining read.-Melissa Aho, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
