DoubleHappy.be .:. The Double Happiness and China Travel Book Blog

I grew up on a commune in West Virginia. Before leaving for China, as a teenager at Amherst College, I studied Chinese, music, writing, and Computer Science, and meandered into a thoughtful and lonely social and political conservatism.

Directionless after college, perhaps expecting something more from the planet, I applied just after the deadline to Princeton in Asia, and I was swiftly bundled off to Guangzhou, China, to teach English. The ensuing journey broke me open. My body tasted death in hospitals and Tibetan monsoons, my heart opened and slammed shut and opened again, and my inner caterpillar finally sprouted wings and fluttered like a butterfly.

Double Happiness: One Man's Tale of Love, Loss, and Wonder on the Long Roads of China recounts that awakening and coming of age against a backdrop of a changing China. The book will be for all who take an interest in: rugged travel, teaching abroad, life in Asia, or inner transformation in a foreign culture. The second journey I undertook was writing it all down. Excerpts from the manuscript have appeared in the book China, an anthology of travel writing on China published by Travelers’ Tales Press, and in Travelmag, a British online travel magazine.

In the years since China, I have slaked bouts of wanderlust by crisscrossing the Andes of Peru, backpacking through Germany and France amid the festivities of the World Cup, and sneaking illegally into Tibet.

I speak passable Mandarin, Spanish, and English, and perhaps that's why I was asked one fragrant spring evening to play guitar on a radio station in Kunming, China. The host on Kunming’s STAR 101.8 FM asked me why my songs were about a young woman I had met at a nearby café. “Ta shì shéi?” (Who is she?) inquired the host. Of course she was my tutor, the young woman who was teaching me the Chinese that is spoken aloud, not just in textbooks. “She’s on the roof,” I said. “She has a basket of strawberries and is listening right now to the radio.”





	I grew up on a commune in West Virginia. Before leaving for China, as a teenager at Amherst College, I studied Chinese, music, writing, and Computer Science, and meandered into a thoughtful and lonely social and political conservatism. Directionless after college, perhaps expecting something more from the planet, I applied just after the deadline to Princeton in Asia, and I was swiftly bundled off to Guangzhou, China, to teach English. The ensuing journey broke me open. My body tasted death in hospitals and Tibetan monsoons, my heart opened and slammed shut and opened again, and my inner caterpillar finally sprouted wings and fluttered like a butterfly. Double Happiness: One Man's Tale of Love, Loss, and Wonder on the Long Roads of China recounts that awakening and coming of age against a backdrop of a changing China. The book will be for all who take an interest in: rugged travel, teaching abroad, life in Asia, or inner transformation in a foreign culture. The second journey I undertook was writing it all down. Excerpts from the manuscript have appeared in the book China, an anthology of travel writing on China published by Travelers’ Tales Press, and in Travelmag, a British online travel magazine. In the years since China, I have slaked bouts of wanderlust by crisscrossing the Andes of Peru, backpacking through Germany and France amid the festivities of the World Cup, and sneaking illegally into Tibet. I speak passable Mandarin, Spanish, and English, and perhaps that's why I was asked one fragrant spring evening to play guitar on a radio station in Kunming, China. The host on Kunming’s STAR 101.8 FM asked me why my songs were about a young woman I had met at a nearby café. “Ta shì shéi?” (Who is she?) inquired the host. Of course she was my tutor, the young woman who was teaching me the Chinese that is spoken aloud, not just in textbooks. “She’s on the roof,” I said. “She has a basket of strawberries and is listening right now to the radio.”		Today's Epigraph FROM CHAPTER 22 "The time came when the risk it took to remain in a tight bud was greater than the risk it took to blossom." - Anaïs Nin Recent Entries Contemplation, Hiatus, and Burning Man Maps, and Why They're Lovable We Have a Winner: A Photo is Chosen and The Book Rolls Forward on Intuition Vote On My Author Portrait! Double Happiness Mates With The World: My Book and I Find A Famous Website How My Book Will Be Published Greetings! Full Archive of Entries September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 Favorite Entries Vote On My Author Portrait! Recent Comments Thanks Kate! by Tony Go Tiger! by kate Lord of the Rings meets Winnie the Pooh by Tony why no chinese allowed? by Chairman Mao Garlic & Grass worthwhile, dormant by Tony Maps--my favs by Roberta Kilstrom Ideas by Kristin Haltinner Maps maps and more maps by jim About Subscribe