The Displaced Nation

A home for international creatives

DIARY OF AN EXPAT WRITER: Three expat writers walk into a bar . . . and are giving away their books (limited time only!)

1 Comment Posted by The Displaced Nation Team on June 26, 2015

American expat in Hong Kong Shannon Young quit her day job last year to become a full-time writer. Here’s the latest entry in her expat writer’s diary.

Dear Displaced Diary,

As you can see from the facetious title of this month’s diary entry, this will not be the usual report on the ups and downs of becoming a full-time expat writer in Hong Kong. I’m shifting gears a bit to tell you about a couple of other writers who share my experience of leaving behind a home in the United States and making a new home in Asia.

In a previous diary entry (it was actually written by my alter ego, Jordan Rivet), I told you about some of my writing friends here in Hong Kong. All of us share a love of writing in English. And I think we all thrive on living in this vibrant international city, which feeds our creativity in all kinds of ways.

At the same time, I’ve been able to connect online (and sometimes in person) with quite a few other expat writers in the region—through my personal blog, social media, and even email. And let’s not forget you, Displaced Diary! You, too, have given me some new connections.

Today I’d like to tell you about two of these friends: Leza Lowitz and Tracy Slater.

Yes, Leza, Tracy and I are the three expat writers who’ve walked into the bar… We are all Americans but come from different backgrounds, and we share the experience of being outsiders in the places where we live. That must be why we enjoy drinking together—and helping each other.

The reason we’ve walked in the bar?

This summer all of us are celebrating the release of our memoirs talking about how we found love, life, and a home abroad.

Here are the stories in question:

The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, & Home on the Far Side of the World, by Tracy Slater (Putnam/Penguin, June 30, 2015)
The Good Shufu is a true story of multicultural love, marriage, and mixups. When Tracy Slater, a highly independent American academic, falls head-over-heels in love with the least likely person in the world—a traditional Japanese salaryman who barely speaks English—she must choose between the existence she’d meticulously planned in the US and life as an illiterate housewife in Osaka. Rather than an ordinary travel memoir, this is a book about building a whole life in a language you don’t speak and a land you can barely navigate, and yet somehow finding a truer sense of home and meaning than ever before. A Summer ’15 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection (as reported in the Displaced Dispatch), The Good Shufu is a celebration of the life least expected: messy, overwhelming, and deeply enriching in its complications.

Year of Fire Dragons: An American Woman’s Story of Coming of Age in Hong Kong, by Shannon Young (Blacksmith Books, June 15, 2015)
In 2010, bookish 22-year-old Shannon follows her Eurasian boyfriend to Hong Kong, eager to forge a new love story in his hometown. She thinks their long-distance romance is over, but a month later his company sends him to London. Shannon embarks on a wide-eyed newcomer’s journey through Hong Kong—alone. She teaches in a local school as the only foreigner, explores Asia with other young expats, and discovers a family history of her own in Hong Kong. The city enchants her, forcing her to question her plans. Soon, she must make a choice between her new life and the love that first brought her to Asia. Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife, has called Year of Fire Dragons “a riveting coming-of-age story” and “a testament to the distance people will travel for love.”

Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras , by Leza Lowitz (Stonebridge Press, June 2015)
At 30, Californian Leza Lowitz is single and traveling the world, which suits her just fine. Coming of age in Berkeley during the feminist revolution of the 1970s, she learned that marriage and family could wait. Or could they? When Leza moves to Japan and falls in love with a Japanese man, her heart opens in ways she never thought possible. But she’s still an outsider, and home is far away. Rather than struggle to fit in, she opens a yoga studio and makes a home for others. Then, at 44, Leza and her Japanese husband seek to adopt—in a country where bloodlines are paramount and family ties are almost feudal in their cultural importance. She travels to India to work on herself and back to California to deal with her past. Something is still not complete until she learns that when you give a little love to a child, you get the whole world in return. The author’s deep connection to yoga shows her that infertile does not mean inconceivable. By adapting and adopting, she transcends her struggles and embraces the joys of motherhood. “Here Comes the Sun proves that love is not bound by blood. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in that which connects us, holds us together, and makes us family.”—MC Yogi

The bartender looks up and says . . .is this a joke?

Three expat writers— Leza, Tracy and Shannon—walk into the bar…and the bartender wonders what they, and their books, could possible have in common.

True, I tell him, Tracy, Leza and I are rather different. Tracy and Leza are both from liberal Jewish families and are members of Generation X; I’m a Millennial from a large homeschooling family. Leza is from Berkeley; Tracy is from Boston; I’m from Phoenix. Leza writes about yoga; Tracy writes about therapy; I write about fencing. Tracy and Leza live in Japan; I live in Hong Kong. Tracy and Leza each pursued motherhood late in life; I’m a few years away from being ready for children.

Yet the similarities in our life choices and challenges are where our real connections lie. All three of us chose love over the comfort of our home countries. We struggle every day with living far from our families and making our time with them really count, and occasionally experience the joy of connecting unexpectedly with people in our new homes, from in-laws to coworkers to students. We have tried, and keep trying, to make sense of our lives in light of our rather unusual surroundings.

In short we three are displaced; nevertheless we are determined to make the most of the situation and to appreciate that it has fed our creative lives as writers. We have turned ourselves into what the Displaced Nation calls international creatives.

I have read Leza and Tracy’s books and can say without hesitation that if you like Year of Fire Dragons, you will also enjoy The Good Shufu and Here Comes the Sun. Each is a memoir that features a romantic relationship with a man from Asia that has in some way drawn us into our expatriate lives. Each book explores the process of building a new home and life in a new country with someone we love. More importantly, each story is about falling in love with a new place and accepting our new selves.

And now for the fun part, Dear Diary!

Click here to enter in the Rafflecopter giveaway.

Three expat writers— Leza, Tracy and I—walk into the bar and start toasting each other, but we’re also carrying a bag with three three books, two paperbacks and one hardback, to give away.

Displaced Nationers who are fans of this column, we’d like you to participate!! Simply click on the above link, and enter your email address in the box. That will count for one entry. You can also tweet and/or comment on this post for additional entries (up to 4). The deadline for entries is July 7; we’ll email the winner on July 8.

By doing this giveaway, we hope to build an even bigger community of people with similar experiences, who can help each other in some of the tough moments of expat and writing life. Finding a community when moving to a new country is vital, and finding a community of like-minded readers and writers is just as important.

It’s also great, as a writer, to feel on occasion that you don’t have to go it alone when it comes to promoting your works, even if you’re an expat living on the other side of the world.

On that note, let’s all raise our glasses.

Cheers!

Gān bēi!

Kanpai!

Shannon Young
AKA Jordan Rivet
www.shannonyoungwriter.com
JordanRivet.com

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Readers, it’s fascinating to discover that three such different American women have all connected overseas and have memoirs coming out at the same time. I think we should offer a toast to them!!

STAY TUNED for next week’s fab posts!

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