China — Superpower or Basket Case? You Decide!A wide-eyed expat is detained by Beijing cops and told to sign a false confession. Will he make it out of China alive? Dueling the Dragon is a great adventure story, but this one just happens to be true!With a journalist’s eye and lively wit, and now joined by his own audiobook narration, Abdiel exposes the deep levels of corruption tearing at China’s … Abdiel exposes the deep levels of corruption tearing at China’s social fabric. You will learn of college students sold into slavery, media suppression of pollution reports, and persecution of a broadcaster just trying to do his job!
Yet there is delight amid the despair, reverie amid the revulsion, as LeRoy encounters China’s “raven-haired beauties.” You’ll laugh away the tears with this riveting memoir!
“An adventure, a memoir, and certainly one of the more entertaining books about China before us today.”
San Francisco Review of Books
“These stories from China are addictive!”
“LeRoy’s ability to write so cogently about such AWFUL things and simultaneously give readers a chuckle, is magnificent.”
“Wields a wicked and eloquent pen.”
“Should be awarded an honorary degree in Anthropology.”
“Informative and eye opening.”
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Another Great from LeRoy
If he writes it, I will read, and yes, I’ve said that before. I have not only read the book, but I have also listened to this audiobook, so this review is for both formats. Dueling the Dragon was not LeRoy’s usual prose or verse, but five stories that make up his creation. He writes well, for one, and I really enjoy and embrace his writing style, no matter the subject, no matter the platform. He has a way of showing a story, and this one, was quite remarkable. Actually, these five within this one, were quite remarkable. With inspiration, and the truth, the stories come to life, and really open the eyes of the readers. The stories lend to the Chinese culture, and show China, in a “behind the curtain” way that is informative, entertaining, and absolutely thrilling, even with the despairs and triumphs. I look forward to LeRoy penning more, and more. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews.
“It is perhaps too much to hope that my observations about China will be prescriptive, but at least I can offer the perspective of an outsider, and sometimes it takes an outsider to observe the obvious!”
Starting in 2005 Abdiel LeRoy, British-American reporter, began his life in China as a teacher. This book is his memoir and memories from that extended time throughout different provinces and parts of Chinese media. As he explains, it started as emails to other friends. Some reviewers have taken LeRoy to task for how he quotes Shakespeare; his views on Asian women; and other “things”. Part of that has to be looking at the past through “the present”. I chose not to do the same, but to try to see it through the same time frame….
My question is why did he do it? You just can’t impose western ideas on Eastern Asia. He didn’t see that teaching from western standards could get you fired, but it’s the reason he claims he was. He continues to teach in other places and complains about how the students are treated, and how a professor was murdered by a student. He freelanced in Beijing because he wanted to be there, falling back into acting to make ends meet. “Sick, loveless and broke” he gets ready to go back to the UK, when CCTV offers him a position that despite setbacks, keeps body and soul together until he truely gets back to a place where he can look at the whole picture, and, in his eyes at times the government of China post-Mao is as intimidating as Mao’s China was.
I have a friend whose granddaughter spent a recent year teaching ESL in Beijing. Although her reports were of its beauty and friendliness, I think someday she might look back upon it and have a bit of anger over how she: a tall, beautiful intelligent redhead might have *actually* been treated. The beauty of e-mail is that it’s momentary, but it stirs up many memories. That’s how I see Mr. LeRoy’s book, that the whole of his experience revisits his instances with angst and anger when it may not have been this way. It is what it is: a memoir. Recommended 4/5
[disclaimer: I received this book from the author and voluntarily reviewed it]