The Seven Year Laowai is a 2013 novelette by Travis Lee, a fictionalized memoir of a middle-aged American who spent seven years teaching ESL in Wuhan, China.
Originally published in 2010 on the China expat blog Lost Laowai, The Seven Year Laowai was re-edited and released as an ebook in 2013. An alternate version was also published on The Anthill, which collects short pieces from China writers.
The Seven Year Laowai is available on Amazon
and Smashwords.
You can read the original Lost Laowai version here. Check out The Anthill Edit here.
'The Seven Year Laowai' contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: The narrator, by his own admission. Others don't fare much better.
- Big Bad: Keith is the closest thing The Seven Year Laowai has to an antagonist.
- And Keith's actions don't directly affect the narrator, only other teachers Keith has harassed and then fired.
- Dying Alone: Keith is described as unexpectedly dying of pneumonia, alone in a cold hospital, one of many easily-replaced foreigners who think they're important in China
- No Name Given: No one refers to the narrator by name and he never reveals it.
