Chicken - Why the Chicken Crossed the World: 18 Surprising Secrets from China on Success, Wealth, and Happiness

Why the Chicken Crossed the World

Surprising Secrets from China on Success, Wealth, and Happiness

By Funky Chicken

2016 Funky Chicken

All Rights Reserved.

Contents

Chicken, secrets, and China dont seem like obvious choices to put in the same sentence. Add happiness into the mix and you seem to have a strange oxymoron. I thought so, too. Until, I started writing an autobiographical blog of a chicken American exploring the seemingly intimidating life inside the worlds most populous communist powerhouse. And then I realized, life in China was not scaryit was fascinating! Even better, there is a ton we can learn from an overseas adventure in Chinaand these lessons can apply to anyone. By then, Id become pretty excited. I arranged all these powerful insights together like a big puzzle. For a moment, I really thought I had found the meaning of life. At the very least, I solved some of its biggest problems.

By the time youre finished with this book, you will be inspired to pursue your own dreams of success and happiness, be humorously entertained by unbelievable shenanigans, and gain insight into what is arguably the most influential country in our lifetime. If this isnt enough, youll also see amusing travel pictures, compliments of my iPhone and bad photography skills.*

Though before you credit all of lifes answers to a little chicken, let me introduce myself. In doing so, Ill simultaneously address the riddle posed by this books title: Why did a Chicken cross the world, and what stories did she uncover on the other side? Im a Californian-turned-New Yorker who kissed her otherwise satisfactory life in America goodbye to seek adventure in Shanghai. Why China? Simply, there is no other country like it. You can thank the country for simultaneously manufacturing the underwear and iPhone you own, while also bombarding Paris luxury stores and inflating San Francisco and London real estate prices. And China is just getting started. Who wouldnt want to capture this incredible moment in time? Thus, to answer the riddle: this Chicken crossed the world to witness its most dynamic emerging market, while it was still emerging.

What did I see? During my four years living in China, I discovered things fabulous, frustrating, and interesting. I promised close friends and family that I would share these China adventures in a blog. However, I didnt expect anyone besides my mother to read it. So I included all the awkward stories and created a pen nameFunky Chickenjust in case a future employer or prospective hot date happened to stumble upon them. Like the blog post about my Chinese driver accidentally buying me a soaking tub meant for hemorrhoids.

As fate would have it, I pecked at all sorts of topics as the Funky Chicken until I realized that China, conveniently enough, is geographically shaped like a chicken. An excited local who learned English out of a textbook (probably outdated a hundred years) introduced his country: China is shaped like a cock!

Then another strange thing happened. I accidentally left the blog publicly accessible on Google. I was shocked, proud, and embarrassed when fans from countries I had never even heard of subscribed to my personal diary. I even welcomed page-long commentsleft by strangersarguing my description of my life in China was inaccurate in my blog. At least that meant they read it.

And then I had an idea. Why not publish the most popular of the 400 blog posts as a series of books? The objective was simple: a residents honest view of the worlds fastest-growing economy that you dont get to see in the newspapers or textbooks. After all, China is all over the news. Given the wide range of gossip, did people think China was a superpower ready to take over the world, or a polluted wasteland with no more baby girls? I figured a lot of peoplebeyond my motherwould be curious about what its really like to live here.

That being said, let me get this out of the way: Im not a China scholar. There are already tons of academic books about China written by true experts, and even more China statistics you can find on Google for free. If you want to know the real mindset of a Chinese, you could easily ask a local. Many, with their new wealth, have already immigrated to a big city near you. This is not a dramatic novel, either. This book collects a wide range of small snapshots to give you a bigger picture of China, and of life. Just as I couldnt explain the complexity of human life in just one linear story, I couldnt encapsulate the intricacies of China in one narrative. Thus, there is no heroine or even deep character development. Even if there were, Im not writing this book to win the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. Although it would be fun if I didI would happily show up on the acceptance stage as the humbly honored Funky Chicken, dressed in a chicken suit.

Instead, Im an American-born Chinese woman on a professional work assignment in Shanghai. I look like a local on the outside, and think like a Westerner on the inside. Thats how Ive succeeded in slipping amongst a billion people to capture the most interesting parts of living in China and tell you all about ita place where fact is often better than fiction, and certainly more entertaining.

The Chicken Take-Away: An author with the pen name Funky Chicken crossed the world to a country geographically shaped like a chicken, and learned powerful life secrets to happiness and success on the other side.

To achieve what you wanthappiness, success, fulfillmentyou need the right perspective. What is perspective? Call it a good attitude, winning spirit, or even luck, your perspective is how you decide to see the world. The next chapters showcase the perspectives necessary for a happy life. However, if youre feeling lazy (i.e. Part 4, Power of Enjoying Life), the overall summary is this: have a positive spirit, consciously enjoy life, and dont wash dishes wearing Zip Lock bags.

Much of happiness and luck is about perspective. Do you feel good when you find a $20 bill on the ground? Well, maybe it depends on whether your friend standing next to you stumbled over a winning lottery ticket instead.

Moving to China was not easy, especially in the first few months. Born to parents from Taiwan and Hong Kongboth places indignantly refute they are anything like communist mainland ChinaI naively assumed looking Chinese meant I would fit right in. I mean, I knew how to use chopsticks. But, I also grew up with white kids, in a white sunny Californian neighborhood where being an immigrant was not cool. So, I tried to fit in. I arrived to my first day of Kindergarten in 1985 dressed like Madonna while carrying a Cabbage Patch Doll, and ever since assimilated with all the other kids. After a lifetime spent trying to disassociate myself from Chinese culture, imagine the shock to the system when I entered the motherland.

And shocking, it was. After all, coming to China wasnt part of my original life plan. My American company sent me there on a work assignment. Why was I nominated to be shipped off and conquer the worlds largest consumer market on behalf of the company? Quite honestly, they probably saw my Asian-looking face, and figured I would fit right in, too.