William Brown, an expat-eye view of changing Xiamen

AFTER living in China for nearly 30 years, William Brown, an MBA professor at Xiamen University, is often considered something of a China expert.

Back in 1988, Brown sold his company and moved to Xiamen, a coastal garden city in southeast China’s Fujian Province, with his wife and two sons.

“I chose Xiamen University because it was the only university that allowed foreigners to take their families with them to learn Chinese at that time,” says the former US military man.

The Brown family flew from California to Hong Kong, where they took a miserable 18-hour boat ride to reach the coastal city.

Back then, there were only three bus routes in the whole city. “The floors of the buses were made of wood, and the bus exhaust fumes could come into the bus,” he recalls.

Brown says he has witnessed China changing from being “really backward” to moderately prosperous over 30 years.

More than 800,000 expatriates living in China have shared both the hardships and benefits of the country’s development, and a look at China through their eyes provides insights into how the nation has been transformed and what it can offer the world.

In addition to teaching, Brown has been committed to developing English websites and has published more than 10 English books about Xiamen.

Brown says he was excited when he once walked into a bookstore and found that several young students were reading his books with a dictionary in their hands.

“The young people love their city and want to know a foreigner’s perspective on it,” he says.

This inspired him to publish the Chinese edition of the book “Discover Gulangyu.” This small island in Xiamen entered the UNESCO world heritage list in July 2017 for its cultural history and historic buildings.

Brown says he was more than happy that a traditional Chinese version would be published in Taiwan later this year.

“Only when the youth understand history can they walk into the future,” he says.

He was excited when the city of Xiamen hosted the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in September last year.

“The G7 and G20 are the past, while BRICS is the future,” he says. “BRICS offers opportunities for countries to find a way to do business.”

He says it is right that China has put forward the concept of “BRICS Plus” by inviting Egypt, Mexico, Thailand, Tajikistan and Guinea for dialogue.