Introduction

My abiding interest in The Yijing (The Book of Changes) has taught me that while a moment in time is indeed unique, it is nonetheless connected to all others, forming a net of phenomena that somehow binds all together. While the velocity of change in China is without precedent, I would be mistaken to style myself as Rip Van Winkle as I look back over these Pieces of China. Only if one dwells on the skyscrapers, posh cars, and reverence for MBAs amongst current students can the conclusion be reached that the present is truly disconnected from the past. Of greater significance than the bricks and mortar, which might seem to be dwarfing us all in China, is the absence of that lingering fear that had so permeated life during my sojourn here following the end of the Cultural Revolution. While other Beijing returnees voice valid regret over the loss of great swathes of hutong, I prefer to marvel at the simple pleasure of being able to visit a friend’s home. Society can hardly be described as open—the police did pay us a visit to check out our immigration status prior to the Olympics—but the warmth and playfulness of local folks, so brutally stifled by the politics of madness, are once again happily abroad. Such qualities have not been created, but merely recovered.

These stories about my student days in Taiwan, first visit to China, pioneering days at work in Beijing, and an adventure in Tibet are all of a cloth in my mind. I began writing them during a summer on Shelter Island, and my Smythson notebook gradually filled up over time. Words tumbled forth either at a little table near the drug store or in subsequent business meetings in London and Beijing. Many who watched me in those conference rooms were terribly impressed by what they thought to be meticulous note taking. May Pieces of China turn out to be more evocative than those notes that were never written.

It is my hope that my daughters, born in China but citizens of the world, will have the pleasure of thinking that they, too, are all the more special for having had their Chinese experiences, and that the very uniqueness of it all will happily connect them to me in that hospitable net of which they are already an unknowing part.

Beijing

Spring 2009