Global Rencai

The world contains one woman, a Chinese woman, who has changed society on a global level for over three decades. Born in Guilin the daughter of a painter, she became a musician herself before starting her first TV show in the 1970s. Ever since, she’s enchanted the world, as a bestselling author, journalist, and business and cultural leader.

Bonjour mes jolies laides!
You all have been much in my heart as I’ve been rushing to finish writing my book for you. I’m thrilled to report that – it’s done. Thanks for all the加油s! I’m now working on the Chinese version with my darling translator Jianbo Wang.

Leave it to the sophisticated French to devise a concept of female beauty so abstract, so nuanced, as to defy logic entirely. Their slangy “jolie laide” literally translates as the contradiction “pretty-ugly,” but think of it as “oddly beautiful.”

That’s right, everyone. I’m so happy to announce today that I am writing a book. Today’s post is the behind-the-scenes story of: how this project came about, why I started the Global Rencai blog, and how I started writing in the first place. So, grab a drink, relax, and enjoy the show.

I grew up during the 1980s, the years known in America as the Decade of Greed. The US economy was flying high, and consumers’ tastes in “adult toys” – cars, boats, LV handbags, etc. – ran toward conspicuous excess. Bumper stickers and T-shirts sported the axiom of the day: “He who dies with the most toys, wins.”

Do you ever look at some people with envy, and wonder why they seem to have all the luck? And curse your own fate? I did, growing up, every day.

I grew up in the United States in the 1970s. My parents didn’t make too much money, but like many Chinese parents, they sacrificed much for their children. They spent nothing on themselves in order to save up for a house in a good school district for my brother and me.

Recently I turned a blog post over to Wesley Yang’s widely-read, fascinating, big, angry, macho essay on being Asian in America. If you’ve not read that, I highly recommend that you do (click here). Today I want to share my thoughts on it. He says:

Let me summarize my feelings toward Asian values: Fuck filial piety. Fuck grade-grubbing. Fuck Ivy League mania. Fuck deference to authority. Fuck humility and hard work. Fuck harmonious relations. Fuck sacrificing for the future. Fuck earnest, striving middle-class servility.

Businessweek last week reported that Chinese women are driving up enrollment at business schools across the United States. So much female Chinese talent is going global! I’m excited by the potential for Chinese women to rock our world. Unfortunately, there’s still this problem of a society which defines women by marital status.

Leftover women are the modern urban women most of whom have high education, high income, and high IQ. They are nice-looking, but they are relatively demanding in choosing spouses so that they haven’t found ideal partners for marriage. – China Ministry of Education, 2007