Big in China Quotes

“Over coffee, I corrected my dad when he said something about "when we returned" to the United States in December.

"If we return in December," I said. "It's not final yet."

"Oh, come on. Why are you resisting the obvious? You've had your fun. Now it's time to get back to reality."

The comment hung in the air for a moment before I responded.

"Reality?" The word stung me and stuck in my throat. It just sounded so wrong. "Did you just say 'Get back to reality'?"

"Yes, and your brother agrees, by the way."

I did not actually care what either of them thought, and I found his comment deeply offensive. I rejected the implication that I was playing around, that this incredible life we had crafted was a mere illusion, a dream we must awaken from. I understood that all the domestic help allowed us to live a fake rich lifestyle, and I had seen people become addicted to its trappings. But the real advantage was simply more time to do interesting, fun, and productive things.

One of the lessons I had taken from expat life was that no one was destined to live by any single reality. There were a million different possibilities, and no one could convince me our life wasn't real. I had never done more than I did now or felt more alive. The key for me was figuring out how to maintain this vibrancy in the looming new reality.”
― Alan Paul, Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing

“Being an expat can complicate your feelings about being American. We tend to possess an assumed superiority that I only noticed when it was punctured. I was also jarred by the commercialism that could engulf anything in the United States. Everything from a McDonald's Happy Meal to a spider exhibit at New York's Museum of Natural History was a marketing opportunity for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I was overwhelmed by the simple act of walking into a grocery store, blinking under the bright fluorescent lights, and staring at the massive, overstocked aisles.”
― Alan Paul, Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing