A Billion to One: An American Insider in the New China

By Gene Ayres

Note: This book is now out of print
(Please see listing for the new edition:
Inside the New China: an Ethnographic Memoir
for further details)

            Based on his exploits and adventures teaching spoken English in the People’s Republic of China, Gene Ayres takes the travel adventure to a new realm and new dimension interwoven with social, political and environmental observations and satire, as well as serious local and global issues. In China he married one of the locals and became one, while at the same time knowing that, not being Chinese, he would never fit in. Taking raw freshman students right out of military boot camp, he taught them to think for themselves, and be their own person: a radical concept in China, but rapidly catching on. In short, he became Jack Black in School of Rock, except at a Chinese state university instead of private prep school.

            Ayres was present and involved when his host city Harbin made global news with a major benzene spill in the city’s only water supply, the Songhua River. He was present during the Anti-Japanese riots, and in attendance at three Governor’s Banquet’s for “Foreign Experts,” one of which he had become. Ayres found himself apologizing for Hollywood stereotyping of China, and for the inexplicable nature of American humor and politics: often intermixed. He was panned for showing “Farenheit 911” and applauded for showing “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming!” He tried to teach classic song lyrics like “Sounds of Silence” only to discover his students already knew them all.  In his travels in China Ayres rode in busses so crowded even a pickpocket would have his arms pinned. He rode trains for which the “Sleeper Class” was steerage, and rode in steerage in overnight ferry boats so crowded you could not walk the aisles. He found a city park planted with marijuana in Shandong Province, and the best seafood restaurant in the world with no kitchen in Sanya. He climbed mountains, swam rivers, ate silkworms and solved a mystery (his forthcoming mystery Black Dragon River).  In short, he walked the walk, and talked the talk.  And now, in Billion to One, he presents a look at and insights into a China rarely seen or understood (includes 16 pages of photos by author).