Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy

Maybe it’s because I’m a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), or maybe it’s because I’ve been to China, but I think the real reason I loved Michael Levy’s book Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating With China's Other Billion is because it’s FUNNY! There were times I laughed so hard I had to put the book down.

Michael Levy is a nice Jewish boy from Philadelphia who joins Peace Corps and is sent to China to teach English. As soon as he gets to his site he is honored with a banquet where the first course is fried millipedes. How does he explain to the Chinese hosts about keeping kosher? I laughed.

When he was finishing his language training, he tried to summarize what he’d learned in his best Chinese. The teacher was not impressed. She informed Michael that he had just said “I, this water, arrive a little Chinese, egg, ten of me, not this written knife.” I laughed.

Michael’s Chinese students are also funny – without meaning to be – by choosing American names that are ridiculous: Pussy, Ragamuffin, Moron. I laughed again.

But Michael also writes with great insight about the lives of ordinary Chinese. He befriends a couple of school girls from a nearby village of ethnic minority Bouyei people, and is shocked when the 12-year old has to stop going to school and start working in her uncle’s restaurant. The reality is that her parents can’t afford to keep her in school. That's the reality for many Chinese.

Living and working in a foreign country when you don’t speak the language is stressful (I know!), but Michael copes by writing about the absurdity of his situation. Kosher Chinese is a fascinating read and it’s also very, very funny.

--Kay