Foreign Babes in Bejing

Travel Guide

Rachel travelled to Beijing in 1994 and the city at that time was an exciting place to be. Rachel had quite the insight already since her father was a Sinology professor and so she had been on several holidays there over the years. Still nothing really could have prepared her for what she saw and experienced whilst there for work herself.

The fact that she could speak a good level of the language before she arrived really gives a unique insight into events from day one. She went as a PR girl but discovered that in Chinese, the sound ‘ Piyar’ means a**hole. Gems like this, local insights and the words, memories etc you form by these laugh out loud moments make the journey with Rachel a real eye opener in every sense of the word.

Actually this linguistic prowess makes her ideal for writing slogans and articles where words and meanings can not be misconstrued and offend. Chinese is prone to that according to this book and there’s lots more linguistic gems where that came from.

At the start of the book she quotes the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi who said something all translators/interpreters will agree on  ‘Life is like a  fish net. Once the fish are caught, you can throw the net away. Once the idea is caught, you can throw the words away”

So with words like ‘tuo – to mean peel off and ‘ku’ or ‘kuzi’ to mean pants appearing in the very first chapter, you know this is going to be a linguistic journey you will never forget!

Joining a soap opera which looks at the differences between East and WEst can’t go wrong can it? She plays the part of Jiexi,  a sexy or slutty character according to  which of the East/West fence you sit on. Trouble is that people all over the world find it hard to tell the character from the actress.

Behind the scenes or in front of the camera Rachel shows you a side to Bejing you will not read anywhere else. The linguistic gems and the cultural nuances of Bejing and its entertainment world are fascinating.