Rachel DeWoskin | Granta

Rachel DeWoskin

Rachel DeWoskin was a soap-opera star and PR consultant in Beijing for five years before she returned to the United States. She divides her time between New York and Beijing. She is currently an adjunct professor at New York University.

Publications

Foreign Babes In Beijing

Rachel DeWoskin

Hoping to improve her Chinese and broaden her cultural horizons, Rachel DeWoskin went to work for an American PR firm in China. Before she knew it, she was not just exploring, but making Chinese culture, as the sexy and aggressive, fearless Jiexi, star of a wildly successful soap opera. A Chinese counterpart to Sex and the City revolving around Chinese-Western culture clashes, the show was called Foreign Babes in Beijing. Living the clashes in real life while playing out a parallel version onscreen, Rachel forms a group of friends with whom she witnesses the vast changes sweeping through China. In only a few years, billboards, stylish bars and discos, international restaurants, fashion shows, divorce, foreign visitors and cross-cultural love affairs transform the face of China’s capital. Foreign Babes in Beijing is as astute and informative as it is witty, moving and entertaining.