4S1F34 Ian Mote: From Chicken Feet to Crystal Baths

Jul 14, 2016

We have expat author Ian Mote on the show to share his expat experience and how and why he decided to write a memoir of his life in China in his comically titled book "From Chicken Feet to Crystal Baths". As a youngster from London and while traveling from country to country with his parents, Ian may have picked up an expat gene along the way.

As of this podcast, Ian has lived as a expat for over 14 years. He has lived 4 years in Hong Kong, 3 years in Dubai and over 7 years in Shanghai, China. Ian chats about how he got hooked on being an expat. However, in this interview, we centre on the making of his unique book that encircles his interactions as a commercial banker and communications with people in China.

Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 472 pages | ISBN 9781504903950

Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 472 pages | ISBN 9781504903943

E-Book | 472 pages | ISBN 9781504903967

Available at Amazon

Website: From Chicken Feet to Crystals Baths

From the Author: Ian Mote:

I have always loved to travel. Right from the time I went around the world as a baby in my parents’ arms, travelling has been in my blood.

Growing up in London, as I grew older I started looking at longer-term trips away from the UK. Aged eighteen, I took the obligatory gap year, when I spent six months on a school exchange program in rural Kansas, experiencing American life that I had only before seen on television or in films. It made me realise that maybe there was more out there in the world to understand, see, and experience.

I went to Hong Kong for the first time in 1990 and then again in 1995. The 1995 trip also featured my first tentative steps onto mainland Chinese soil. Despite a chronic case of food poisoning spoiling my view somewhat, even then I found China fascinating. What a different world from suburban London.

In 2002 I moved permanently to Hong Kong and lived there for four frenetic years. That time included regular trips into all different parts of China, and from those trips, these stories started. I had an intermission from China when I moved to Dubai in 2006, but in late 2008 I took the opportunity to return to Asia to live in Shanghai, where I remain to this day.