An American Teacher in China: Coping with Cultures

by Francis Kretschmer

Overview

From the perspective of six years in Beijing (1986-1992), Kretschmer offers a lively account of how American Foreign Experts go berserk in China, how they gradually adjust to Chinese culture, and how they eventually acquire a unique bicultural vision of the world. Kretschmer combines entertaining sketches of the bumbling China Thumb with penetrating glimpses of the population policy at work. He addresses issues related to the function and purpose of education, economics, democracy, and a free press in China and at home. Kretschmer is particularly sensitive to culturally conceived mythologies of reality and how they differ for Chinese and Americans. A Renaissance scholar with an extensive background in cross-cultural experience and broad-ranging interests, Kretschmer serves the reader a Chinese banquet of thought-provoking observation about their culture and ours.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897893893
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/25/1994
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1430L (what's this?)

About the Author

F. A. Kretschmer has a PhD in French Renaissance literature from New York University. He is currently a Foreign Expert in the Department of English at Union University/Beijing Institute of Tourism. He has taught at the Universite de Strasbourg (as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow), and at the University of Connecticut, City University of New York, New York University, and Dalhousie University, and has written a number of books on language learning and cross-cultural studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction
From China Thumb to World Hand: Stages of Transformation
Mythic Reality: The Chamber That Controls the Sea
Through a Glass, Darkly: The Chinese and the American National Mythoi
After Tiananmen Square
Facing the Future: Population
Facing the Future: Education
Facing the Future: Economics
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
Index

What People are Saying About This

Charles W. Hayford Northwestern University

Kretschmer's is a valuable and likeable addition to the chorus of opinions on modern China and how Americans can go about understanding it. As a scholar of European comparative literature who went to teach in Beijing, he sees the play of global culture and Chinese modernization. He has the strengths of both the non-sectarian amateur and the informed expert; he is without the unaware sentimentality of the enthusiast or the callused partiality of the specialist. This is an approachable but not shallow book, to be recommended to both the intelligent general reader and the China specialist.

Editorial Reviews

Kretschmer (department of English, Union U./Beijing Institute of Tourism) illuminates the challenges and rewards of being an American Foreign Expert in China. He discusses his predictions for China's future regarding population, education, and economics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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