A Geek in China: Discovering the Land of Alibaba, Bullet Trains and Dim Sum

Description

Every year, millions of foreign tourists flock to China - only to find themselves overwhelmed by the complexities of navigating the world's largest and fastest culture. A professor, blogger, and avid China explorer, Matthew B. Christensen created this invaluable guide to help visitors and armchair travellers see past the exotic - and often erroneous - traditional stereotypes to better understand the real China of today. Packed with photographs and short articles on all aspects of Chinese culture, past and present, A Geek in China enables readers to converse with native Chinese on a wide variety of everyday topics. This truly comprehensive guide ranges over essential aspects of Chinese culture, life in modern China, and insights into Chinese thinking. The Society of American Travel Writers Foundation (SATW) announced the winners of the 2017 Lowell Thomas Journalism Competition and A GEEK IN CHINA was awarded GOLD in the Guidebook category! The awards are named for Lowell Thomas, acclaimed broadcast journalist, prolific author, and world explorer during five decades in journalism. "Packed with photographs and short articles on all aspects of Chinese culture, past and present, A Geek in China is a smart, concise, and accurate guide to the world's most populous and longest continuous culture." - Xu Qin, Shanghai Daily See the review here.

Dr. Matthew B. Christensen holds degrees in Chinese, international relations, and Chinese linguistics. He is Professor of Chinese in the Department of Asian & Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University where he has been teaching for the past twenty years. His research interests include Chinese language and culture, Chinese poetry, Chinese culinary culture, and teaching Chinese as a foreign language. He blogs about his adventures exploring China at intothemiddlekingdom.com.

"It's readable and interesting even if you're not ready to board a plane for Asia immediately: it finds a nice balance between researched pieces on history, culture, and the arts, and fun, funky personal recollections of Christensen's time in China." --Cosmos Mariners Blog "A Geek in China is the perfect book for anyone who wants to be culturally savvy about China, fast. In 150 pages that make for terrific reading, you can quickly transcend the usual travel guide stuff on China and really delve into the intricacies of the country. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to be more knowledgeable about China, especially when it comes to basic cultural literacy." --Speaking of China blog "Packed with photographs and short articles on all aspects of Chinese culture, past and present, A Geek in China is a smart, concise and accurate guide to the world's most populous and longest continuous culture." -Shanghai Daily