On a rainy day in 2003, Mr. Edwin Maher accidentally tuned in China Radio International (CRI) broadcasting to Australia. Immediately, this professional broadcaster emailed the CRI, asking whether he could help to train their staffs. The answer was yes. From then on, the foreigner began his "adventures" in Beijing, the capital of China.
In Beijing, Mr. Maher worked in CRI and CCTV chronically, at the same time he wrote for China Daily - one of China's most popular English newspapers, sharing his awkward but interesting experiences with readers. As we all know that the longer a foreigner lived in a different country, the better he would adapt to it. But for Mr. Maher, those funny experiences happened more and more often. And now, they even made a book!
In the book Mr. Maher told his "adventures" and "misadventures" in 23 selected articles in a laughter-provoking style. 100 plus cartoons were drawn by China Daily's experienced cartoonist to make each scene come alive.
To be frank, the reason why Mr. Maher often got lost and confused in the daily life of Beijing was Mr. Maher himself. He could not find others to blame. Because he was not satisfied with just learning about China superficially. He decided to live like a Chinese native. So, as we learned from the book that he took sardined buses with commuters, joined the line for depositing in a local bank, and rode a bicycle in the city of the heaviest traffic in the world…well, let us say that for a foreign broadcaster who was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia, which are two countries with so much land and so little population, the only fact that we China has a population of 1.3 billion will scare him to death. So, we firmly believe that as long as Mr. Maher is interested in learning deeply about China (which is definitely worth to do), those funny experiences will continue, and he will always enjoy it and never regret it.
As China steps closer to the world, its communications with the outside world become more frequent and deeper-leveled. A Chinese working in the USA, or an Australian working in China - these things will no longer surprise anyone. In those intercultural cooperations and communications, there are dreams, passion, accomplishments, or even misunderstandings, but the trend of globalization is irreversible. Maybe one day, we will all become the citizens of the world. Then, when we look back at those awkward experiences like Mr. Maher's, we will smile warmly at ourselves.