Briefings From Beijing

By LeRoy Abdiel

Chinese State Mediocrity!
After two years in China's education system, Abdiel takes on its broadcasting empire when he joins China Radio International in Beijing. Following an ill-fated stint in newscasting, he goes on to record audiobook episodes for the state media giant and becomes fascinated with the Tang Dynasty 'Poet Immortal', Li Bai.
But trouble is brewing as surely as a cup of oolong cha as the station ups his workload, degrades contract terms, and misses salary payments. All amid a culture of paranoia as producers fear "the American embassy might be listening."
If that were not enough, Chinese police get involved, showing up at the author's door one night, dragging him to the police station, and insisting he sign a false confession!
But things look up when Abdiel takes up freelance voice-recording work and "full-throttle immersion" in the performing arts and his belovèd Penghao Theatre.
Briefings From Beijing is the fourth of five memoirs in Abdiel's Dueling the Dragon series and testifies to the deeply embedded corruption behind China's superpower façade. As always, he'll have you laughing between the tears!
"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."
"Reveals the the dark side of the country."
"The author knows the Chinese better than the Chinese."
"Subverts dominant concepts of China."
Reader reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unparagoned
• Release date: Jul 2, 2021

Book preview

Briefings From Beijing

Briefings From Beijing

Book 4 of 'Dueling the Dragon': Five Memoirs About Living and Working in China

Abdiel Le Roy

Unparagoned

Copyright 2005-2017 Abdiel LeRoy

---

License Notes

---

This book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, resold, licensed, or publicly performed except as permitted in writing by the author. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text is an infringement of the author's rights. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

---

Cover illustration by Ignacio Pessolano

To Brother Herman,

who has stood by me in my trials.

Contents

Get the Audiobook!

Books in Dueling the Dragon Series

What Others Are Saying About Dueling the Dragon

Briefings From Beijing

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Perspectives From Peking (Sample)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

From the Author

Books by A. LeRoy

Notes

Get the Audiobook!

Hear a sample from the author’s audiobook narration, and find purchase links, at geni.us/China.

Books in Dueling the Dragon Series

1

DISPATCHES FROM CHENGDU

Geni.us/Chengdu

---

2

LAMENTS FROM LESHAN

Geni.us/Leshan

---

3

CHIDINGS FROM CHANGPING

Geni.us/Changping

---

4

BRIEFINGS FROM BEIJING

Geni.us/Beijing

---

5

PERSPECTIVES FROM PEKING

Geni.us/Peking

---

DUELING THE DRAGON COLLECTION

Dispatches From Chengdu

Laments From Leshan

Chidings From Changping

Briefings From Beijing

Perspectives From Peking

Geni.us/China

What Others Are Saying About Dueling the Dragon

LeRoy's ability to write so cogently about such AWFUL things and simultaneously give readers a chuckle, is magnificent.

Peter Allemano

Wields a wicked and eloquent pen. I grow more horrified with each commentary. I will never, ever attempt to get a job in China. Period. This enlightened me to no end.

Steve Seiff

These stories from China are addictive.

Dixon Chen

Should be awarded an honorary degree in Anthropology. These accounts are an ethnographic study.

Andre Knights

These stories from China are always informative and eye-opening, and I read each one with fascination.

Richard Aven

This makes my neck hair stand on end and my tummy twitch. Hooorrrible! Chinese law? Yeah right! What exactly is that?

Christine Heike

Original cover sketch by Ignacio Pessolano

Introduction

Looking back over these chronicles, I tingle with embarrassment sometimes—at my naivety, overreactions, and missed opportunities. I even wonder what readers will infer about my psychological makeup at the time—a glutton for punishment, surely, and meeting at least one definition of insanity by repeating the same thing and expecting different results!

But rather than revise these books with the benefit of hindsight, I have favored giving voice to my former self as he was then. After all, my Dueling the Dragon series began as a sequence of newsletters emailed to friends overseas, in which I was unfolding events more or less as they occurred. Nor have I seen a need to change anyone's name in these accounts.

I have also retained most of the original expletives, as they help to encapsulate my emotional responses at the time. I shun legalism in language as well as in life, and I am rather of Shakespeare's view that there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. ¹

In any case, I trust readers will find the language less shocking than what it is responding to. I have witnessed universities complicit in honoring exam cheats, students sold into slavery while teachers pocket the proceeds, and farmers driven off their land by unscrupulous developers. My own direct experiences include false charges alleged by Beijing police, and persecution at China's state-media institutions. And I have not made any of this up!

Yet, from this nation of extremes, I also hope to offer some rays of light, including romantic encounters and moments of comedy. Which brings me to the central theme of this book—reflected in both the title and the cover—that China is a nation of extreme contrasts. Though magical in all cultures, the Dragon is generally regarded as a benevolent being in China and as a malevolent one in the West. In my experience, the Chinese Dragon is fully both!

My Dueling the Dragon series comprises five memoirs, each covering a distinct period. The first, Dispatches From Chengdu, starts in 2005 with