Global Rencai

It’s been such a difficult and emotional week following the murders here in Los Angeles. In my last blog post, I called for calm in the Chinese-on-Chinese hatred that some people have expressed online.

My friends and I all have stayed in relationships longer – months, even years – longer than we know is good for us. We try to change him, we try to change ourselves, we struggle to make a fit where there is not a real fit, and in the process of trying to make things work, we make everything worse.

Last Friday, I went back to Los Angeles City Hall to help celebrate the 10-year anniversary of “Cash for College,” a program which connects students and their parents with the public funds to help them go to college.

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.

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.

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

If you feel that your job gives you no room to build on your strengths and passions, then you’re in the wrong job. Recently I’ve been writing about how you should learn to be true to yourself and take charge of your career, here, here, here and here. In response, blog readers have been writing me about how they fantasize about abandoning their PhDs.

Then I got an email from someone who’s done just that.