Call Me Tai Tai: Passages from the Life of an Expat in China
About this ebook
Part love story, part travelogue, Call Me Tai Tai explores author Joan Kelleher’s life-changing journey as she follows her husband to 1980’s China. Departing her beloved Hawaii, where she raised her children and carved out a career, it’s Joan’s time to leave the nest. Throwing caution to the wind, she gives up her predictable future to follow her instincts and take the biggest gamble of her life.
But it wouldn’t be just a simple move. She’d need to leave her grown son, who had been diagnosed four years previously, with a crippling mental illness. Still, his doctors believed his parents’ relocation could be the change he needed to find more independence. And maybe, Joan hoped, it could also be the chance she needed to salvage her broken marriage.
For anyone looking to begin anew or find their footing after their children have left the nest, this memoir can stand as a rallying cry and inspiration. A two-year assignment turned into many more and Call Me Tai Tai recounts Joan’s adventures, from the humbling spiritual visits to Tibet to her discovery of a love for hunting for antiques. Armchair travelers will delight in this breathtaking tour of the scenic beauty and culture of Asia, that is as much a chronicle of change and self-discovery. Throughout her journey, Joan provides an heartfelt recounting of both the beauty and the hardships of the land, while introducing a myriad of unforgettable characters as Joan rediscovers herself.
Insightful, poignant, and exciting, Call Me Tai Tai is the story of an inquisitive, adventurous heart in a magnificent and magical world. At its heart, it is the universal story of the power that love and faith can have on a family.
About the author
Joan Kelleher Gencarelli was born in London, England and has lived in Hawaii since the early sixties, where her two chil - dren and various dogs, cats, ducks and fish thrived. Joan’s first career was as a technical writer who created operating procedures and systems requirements for the casualty insurance industry. In 2002, Joan “started writing for fun,” which resulted in short stories inspired by ten years as an Ex-pat’s wife in Beijing, Seoul and Bangkok. Childhood memories of WWII evacuation were incorporated into a short story, “Evacuation – There and Back” which became part of the BBC WWII People’s War archives. Among other stories, one published in the liter - ary journal, The Rainbird , was awarded the Golden Plover Award from the Windward Arts Council. In 2006, she received the Lorin Tarr Gill Honorable Mention award for non-fiction. Joan is an avid traveler and longs to visit the few places on her list that she has not yet seen, take in the sights, meet interesting people, sample the foods on offer, and shop.
