Bill Purves has savoured a variety of life-styles from professional vagrant to jet-setting corporate executive. These days, he prefers to describe himself as a failed amateur runner, a claim supported by his vast collection of cups and medals commemorating four decades of minor placings in major races. With those who don’t know him well, he pretends never to have owned a car, a flat or a telephone, and that this has left him seriously rich. He can thus choose to live a life of perpetual leisure and sensory overload in Hong Kong. Further enquiries reveal that this feat of levitation is in fact supported by his wife, who holds down a steady job in mainland China. They correspond regularly.
China on the Lam : On Foot Across the People's Republic
Information and excerpt from the publisher | Buy the book from Paddyfield.com
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Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1991. Published in Chinese as Zong Jingli Tongzhě by Business Weekly, Taipei, 1991.
Ever wonder what your husband really does up in Guangzhou all week long? Take a close look inside those mainland joint ventures. Bill Purves tells the story of his two years on Marlboros and maotai, trapped in a Guangdong foundry. Everything you need to know before the ICAC comes to the door.
Three Chinas
Published by NC Press, Toronto, 1994.
Three Chinas presents the daily life of three real people, friends of mine, in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the PRC. It describes their jobs, their homes, their education, their daily routine, what they own, what they wear, what they eat. It may turn out to be a snapshot taken on the eve of China’s reunification. In any case, it highlights how the three societies have nurtured many superficial differences among these three ordinary people while beneath the surface they remain profoundly Chinese.
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