We all know that 2020 is the weirdest year we’ve had in like three generations, right? For my own family, this year has kept us from living in our home now for nearly ten months. If you’ve never been semi-homeless for ten months, I don’t recommend it.

But this non-fiction graphic-novel by Guy Delisle reminds me of my home-away-from-home, and for that reason primarily, this has been perhaps my favorite read this entire year. But that’s not the only reason. This is just a really, really great read.

Guy Delisle lived in China’s southern metropolis of Shenzhen (the Chinese city right across the bridge from Hong Kong) at some point in the early 2000s as the editor of a foreign television cartoon outsourcing its hand-drawn artistry to Chinese artists. New to the country and culture, French-born Delisle recorded his daily navigations of Chinese culture at the turn of the millennium in the form of creative, graphic-novel-style vignettes that are as real-to-life as I’ve ever seen in a Chinese travelogue. I ate up this impressive work of art in a single sitting, and I can guarantee that I’ll be reading it again.

I myself was once a single guy trying to navigate southern China without a lick of the Chinese language in my repertoire. In fact, when I first arrived in 2005, I hadn’t yet even learned “Ni Hao.”

Other culture-shock experiences awaited me that first day too. I thought the city smelled a little too much like garbage when I de-boarded the plane (on the runway of all places). I had my money stolen ten minutes after I landed by a guy who offered to help carry my bags. And no one in America had forewarned me about the squatty potty, so when I ran to the nearest restroom after that 16-hour flight and opened the first stall, I thought I had accidentally happened upon the janitor’s closet. But then I opened another stall door, and then another…and I was suddenly stuck in a toilet-less world of janitor’s closets! Total nightmare! How I managed that first bathroom visit, I’ll never know….though it had something to do with the mercy of God.

Things got better for me after that, but what a start to my adventure! So Delisle’s book really hit home for me, and there were many instances where I simply laughed openly at his insights. I absolutely adored this book, despite its occasional vulgar word.

I don’t recall if I’ve reviewed any other graphic novels in the past. Perhaps Manasseh: The Comeback King or The Dopple Ganger Chronicles. Nothing as good as this, though. If you love other cultures or ever plan to visit China once this whole new-Cold-War thing is over, I highly recommend you read this one.

©2020 E.T.

Read More from Guy Delisle:

• Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (2006)
• Burma Chronicles (2008)
• Jerusalem (2012)
• Hostage (2017)

Read More Travelogues from Asia:

• After You, Marco Polo by Jean Bowie Shor (1955)
• Mongoli by Silvio Micheli (1964)
• Chinese Journey by Jan Myrdal (1965)
• The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux (1975)
• Rhythms of a Himalayan Village by Hugh R. Downs (1980)
• Across China by Peter Jenkins (1986)
• Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux (1988)
• Seeing Vietnam by Susan Brownmiller (1994)
• Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China by Guy Delisle (2006)
• Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle (2008)
• Why China Will Never Rule the World by Troy Parfitt (2011)
• Something Needs to Change by David Platt (2019)
• High by Erika Fatland (2020)