Justin Mitchell, a former newspaper reporter from Boulder, Colorado, is in his early 50s when, in 2003, he decides to teach English to kids in China. A six-week assignment in the burgeoning metropolis of Shenzhen morphs into a year-long contract at a daily newspaper, and suddenly the twice-married father of one is thrust into a life-changing experience in the most transformative time in the country's history. Shenzhen Zen follows Mitchell over the ensuing decade as he lurches from job to job, bar to bar, bedroom to bedroom, and then finds love with an enigmatic woman who is the embodiment of a confident new China. This is an unflinchingly honest and touching story of insight and anguish, surrealism and tenderness, as the author undergoes a second coming of age against a backdrop of rapid globalization.
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