In January, 2019, Bill (William) Brown, a professor at Xiamen University, sent a copy of his book “Off the wall, How We Fell for China” and a letter to President Xi Jinping,because he’s the one that encouraged Bill to write books about twenty years ago. President Xi Jinping replied, “you’ve witnessed China’s reform and opening-up. Over these years, you’ve spoken for Xiamen and Fujian Province with enthusiasm, telling the stories of the real China. You make me feel like ‘I’m at home’”. Your China story is bound to be better.”
Brown comes from the United States. He’s lived at Xiamen University since 1988 with his wife and children. In 1992, he became Fujian Province’s first permanent foreigner resident. In 1994, they drove 40,000 kilometers around the country because a lot of foreigners said they didn’t understand what it was like inland and Brown wanted to see it himself. So this year, he has revisited the route that he traveled 25 years ago, writing about the big changes in China. The other book is about the changes in people’s lives. He’s interviewed people of all kinds of backgrounds. Brown thinks that it’s of great importance to tell China’s stories seriously because China understands the world, but the world doesn’t understand China very well at all.
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