Evolution of a Chinese Halfpat
By Kevin Smith
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About this ebook
Becoming a part of it? Well, that's the hard part.
In the Chinese fable, “A frog at the bottom of the well,” a tiny critter believed that his water trough was the center of the universe. That was until a greater world beyond its narrow view was introduced.
Kevin Smith, an overly-imaginative Midwest American, arrived in China expecting a bygone era. The absence of acrobatic lion dancers, exploding firecrackers and clashing cymbals on every corner, outdated and stereotypical beliefs were exposed to reality. This insightful and humorous memoir chronicles Kevin's decades-long journey in the “Middle Kingdom.” It illustrates how someone becomes a halfpat, meeting a foreign culture halfway, pushing beyond the expat bubble that confines so many of us who live abroad. Hopping beyond his tiny well, Kevin, the Western-frog-turned halfpat, has realized the world is bigger than any one ideology and there is plenty of room for differing views and opinions when in the name of love and adventure.
Kevin Smith
I was born when Winston tasted good , like a cigarette should. We ran across a baseball field with my Dad to watch Jack Kennedy's motorcade . We were offered protection underneath our desks from Soviet warheads. A couple of years later, the motorcade made the fatal mistake of slowing to a crawl in Dallas . They got him. They. Anyway, I grew up a normal ,conflicted youth. I had the ability to go so deeply into a book, that it was real, it was a variation of the fugue state I entered when playing sports. The British Invasion blew my mind and saved me. Every few years they cook up a new excuse to slaughter young men and civilians. This one they called Vietnam. I thank God that I got a high number in the lottery and I thank and honor those who went and those who didn't return. The conflicted kid , became a conflicted adult . Fifteen years later , the grace of God pulled me from a booze and drug laced spiral. I married a sweet , sweet woman and we were blessed with a beautiful boy and a beautiful girl. I lucked out and ended up as a conductor on the railroad. Twenty-eight years and out. Now , I want to wrassle all those fragments of stories that have spun through my brain for years.
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