Kosher Chinese

So excited to read a book about Kosher Chinese food.
SO not that book!

Interesting memoir of a young man who joined the Peace Corp and taught English to Chinese students in China. Not so much about food except that he does give up his vegetarian and kosher ways to experiment with different Chinese foods. 

Mainly this is a travelogue memoir of his experiences while living in a Chinese province for two years.
Michael Levy leaves his easy American suburban lifestyle to spend two years in  Guiyang, the largest city in southern China's relatively rural Guizhou Province.  He has left home as a Jewish, kosher vegetarian but know that while he away that will be very hard to stick to.  "From day one, I decided that I was going to be as good a guest as I can, and that meant saying yes to anything they put in front of me."

Through this book we are enlightened about  China as Michael experiences  many different obstacles in his path.  First of course is the language difference.  He has lessons and thinks he is speaking correctly, but in many interactions he has mangled the pronunciation or the sentence structure.  Then there are times where he is actually speaking correctly and the people do not want to think that an American can speak their language so they refuse to understand him even when he is right.

There are the funny interactions with his students.  They have taken on English names based on things they have heard in American music or on television.  So Michael tries to carefully without insulting them help them change their names to more acceptable words.  When he explains he is Jewish, the student become fascinated and start a Friday night Shabbat Club, where they cook dinners of "Jewish food" together.  They are eager to learn as much as they can from him.  The students are always challenging Michael to explain why what they have learned from books provided by the Chinese government about America and Americans, other religions and the world could be incorrect.


Michael Levy's experience is entertaining but also very educational for the reader to learn what life is like in China for the people who are average working class citizens.  He shows us how restricted their lives can be.    We can live vicariously through Michael and then decide if we want to travel to China to taste the foods and even try the toilets for ourselves.