‘Foreign Babes’ in China: 3 Rachel DeWoskin Books with Cross-Cultural Love

Rachel DeWoskin recently returned to China to launch her new book “Someday We Will Fly“, with events in Beijing and Shanghai. I had the pleasure to see her at the Beijing Bookworm to learn about this fascinating new historical novel, which follows a teenage Jewish girl in the circus in Poland who flees to Shanghai with her family, where they struggle to survive amid a city under Japanese occupation during World War II.

If you’ve read a number of DeWoskin’s books, you know she loves to explore certain themes and topics.

First off, many of her books are set in China. She spent many of her formative years in the country and still considers it a second home, returning almost every summer.

Also, most of her books focus on the experiences of outsiders and how they seek to connect with others across potential points of division. That includes cultural differences — and even cross-cultural love among foreign women and Chinese men.

You’ll find that in “Someday We Will Fly“, the 15-year-old protagonist Lillia develops a crush on a Chinese boy in her neighborhood.

But it’s not the only example. The classic of course — the one that often comes to mind when many of us think of Rachel DeWoskin — is her memoir “Foreign Babes in Beijing“.

It chronicles her years as a twenty-something in Beijing, a time when she starred as the foreign seductress Jiexi in a TV soap opera while she navigated life and love in the 1990s in Beijing, including having a relationship with a Chinese guy.

After “Foreign Babes in Beijing“, DeWoskin came out with her debut novel in 2009 titled “Repeat After Me“.

For those of you who have read “Foreign Babes in Beijing“, Rachel DeWoskin’s imprint is unmistakable in the main character of Aysha. Like DeWoskin, Aysha is Jewish, from New York City, loves Tang Poetry, teaches, attended Columbia, and ends up falling for a Chinese man. And, like “Foreign Babes in Beijing“, the China parts of the story take place in Beijing, DeWoskin’s old stomping grounds. Plus, “Repeat After Me” also delves deeply into the cultural divide and misunderstandings that inevitably occur when people from two distant cultures become involved.

If you’re looking for some great reads set in China that explore cultural differences with a helping of cross-cultural love in the mix, then consider reading “Foreign Babes in Beijing“, “Repeat After Me” or “Someday We Will Fly“, all by Rachel DeWoskin.

Have you ever read any of Rachel DeWoskin’s books, such as “Foreign Babes in Beijing“, “Repeat After Me” or “Someday We Will Fly“? 

Rachel DeWoskin Interview in Asian Jewish Life

Screenshot of Rachel DeWoskin interview in Asian Jewish LifeThis week, my interview with writer Rachel DeWoskin just hit the presses at Asian Jewish Life! Many of you already know Rachel through her beloved memoir Foreign Babes in Beijing or her debut novel Repeat After Me (two of the quintessential books featuring foreign women who find love in China).

Here’s the intro to the interview:

During the mid-1990s, Rachel DeWoskin first dazzled audiences as the unlikely star of the Chinese soap opera Foreign Babes in Beijing — an experience she captured in her 2005 memoir of the same title, exploring life and love (both onscreen and off) in a changing China. Foreign Babes in Beijing has been published in six different countries and is currently being developed as a television series for HBO.

More recently, Rachel DeWoskin has dazzled readers with her award winning fiction set in Asia and beyond, exploring themes such as sameness and difference, empathy, women’s relationships and the Jewish experience. Her 2009 debut novel Repeat After Me won a Forward Magazine Book of the Year Award. Big Girl Small, her 2011 novel, received the 2012 American Library Association’s Alex Award and was named one of the top three books of 2011 by Newsday. Rachel DeWoskin was also the 2011 recipient of a three-month M Literary Residency in Shanghai, where she completed the screenplay for American Concubine and was inspired to develop a forthcoming novel to be set in Shanghai.

While Rachel DeWoskin currently resides in Chicago, where she is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Chicago, she returns to China every year and considers Beijing a second home.

Asian Jewish Life sat down with Rachel DeWoskin to learn more about her ongoing relationship with China, her forthcoming novels and screenplay, and her interest in exploring Judaism — including in Asia — through her writing.

Read the full interview online at Asian Jewish Life. And as always,  if you love it, share it!

Yangxifu Pride: 5 Creative Women Who Should Be Honorary Yangxifu

Pearl Buck
Pearl S. Buck (from wikimedia.org)

Some of the best creative works about Chinese men and Western women in love came from Western women who never once had a Chinese husband. I’d like to salute five of these women, who in my opinion will always be honorary yangxifu (foreign wives of Chinese men).

Pearl S. Buck

Pearl Buck didn’t just make her mark in the literary world with her novels about life in China — she also was one of the first to write about love between Chinese men and Western women in East Wind: West Wind. Pearl married twice, both white American men, but some allege she was a secret lover of the famous Chinese poet Xu Chimo. Maybe her supposed affair inspired some of those on-the-page Chinese man-Western woman romances? Who knows, but she’ll always be the ultimate honorary yangxifu in my book. Continue reading “Yangxifu Pride: 5 Creative Women Who Should Be Honorary Yangxifu”

Ask the Yangxifu: Books with Chinese Men and Western Women in Love

Books such as Foreign Babes in Beijing feature Chinese men and Western women falling in love. (image from http://www.goodreads.com)
Books such as Foreign Babes in Beijing feature Chinese men and Western women in love.

In lieu of the usual Q&A, I decided to do a post is inspired by a previous Q&A. Specifically, the question I answered two weeks ago about movies with Chinese men and Western women — since many movies owe their existence to books, that ultimate writer’s labor of love (including at least two of the movies on that list). And, even if it is cliche to write this, well, the book usually IS better than the movie. 😉

So, here’s a list of all the books I can think of with Chinese men and Western women in love:

As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong

As Katherine struggles to care for two children in New Zealand in the wake of her husband’s death, she discovers love with the Chinese shopkeeper — but must keep it secret because of the racism and prejudice of this era, just on the brink of World War I. Continue reading “Ask the Yangxifu: Books with Chinese Men and Western Women in Love”

On the Rarity of Foreign Women and Chinese Boyfriends/Chinese Husbands

As a foreign woman with a Chinese husband, I couldn't help but wonder why we're so rare
As a foreign woman with a Chinese husband, I couldn’t help but wonder why we’re so rare

When I’m in China, I tend to turn a lot of heads, especially in the countryside — and that’s not just because I’m a foreigner. It’s because I’m often seen holding hands with my Chinese husband.

It’s true — the sight of a foreign woman and Chinese boyfriend or Chinese husband is much rarer than its counterpart, the foreign man and Chinese woman.

If you go to any major city in China, you will invariably run into the foreign man-Chinese woman pairings in any major tourist or shopping destination; not so with foreign women and Chinese men. It’s easy to gauge this reality on the website Candle for Love (CFL), devoted to helping US Americans bring their loved ones over from China. CFL is like a tidal wave of American men in love with Chinese women, with only a rare American woman/Chinese husband surfacing to break the monotony. Continue reading “On the Rarity of Foreign Women and Chinese Boyfriends/Chinese Husbands”