Called "laugh out loud funny, touching, sometimes stomach-churning," by reviewers, this genre-bending book reveals what it was like to live in a big, smoggy, industrial town in China before the twin plagues of Trump and COVID-19. From taking tea in the hidden villa of a rabidly pro-government "black businessman," to getting lost in a mountain graveyard hundreds of miles from any other English speaker, the manifestly flawed narrator enthusiastically dives into adventures that will make you cringe, crack up or even cry.

The author's Anthony Bordain-like voice, speaks truth to government, religion, eco-haters and racists both in China and in the U.S. and concludes the most important thing we share is our tendency to do and think hilariously stupid things.

Loaded with photos, footnotes to articles by "real" journalists and historians, and even an intentionally bad poem or two, the short chapters make for a delightful read.