An American Bum in China: Featuring the bumblingly brilliant escapades of expatriate Matthew Evans Paperback – September 28, 2019

This short book is brilliant and hilarious. It’s the story of one Matthew Evans, who escapes the drudgery of Muscatine, Iowa, population not a lot, and a place where farmers “cob-roll” (my term) - a corn husk under their feet to show they are not interested in your conversation and a place so nearly flat, if you stand on a few telephone books, you can see several counties (I’ve passed through it like many others). Evans is a cancer survivor and is aged beyond his years because of his medical regimen. He doesn’t escape to Des Moines, Iowa, but to China to get a kiss from a long-standing internet belle and maybe lose his virginity. That first experience turns out to be a disaster. In spite of the protestations of his mother: “They’ll shoot you. The moment you get off that airplane they’ll shoot you. Or they’ll arrest you. They’re Communists, And Communists hate Americans！”, he gets in a plane to China.Matthew Evans is a fascinating character but isn’t particularly likeable and would be uncomfortable to have dinner with or in his case, date with the many Chinese lovers he eventually finds. In the end the reader cannot but help have some sort of sympathy or empathy with him. He talks too much, is gimpy, ugly, and is aged beyond his years but there is something intangibly fascinating about him. He learns very quickly to become street smart, learns to win at chess in one night: in fact so smart that he secures two teaching appointments at leading Chinese universities before being discovered as a fraud. Before that is a catalogue of misadventures and Evans learns how to survive Chinese chicanery, to avoid bureaucracy, to sleep rough, and becomes adept at old-fashioned scrounging. He always seems just one step ahead of the law. He even crossed illegally into Myanmar- twice!In the end it’s not the police that catches up with Evans, it’s his own incompetence for which he always has an answer but never an angry excuse. He tries Hong Kong and Macao as a persona non grata in mainland China, but his adventures lead to similar destitution. He implodes. His former internet girlfriends, of over five years, run out of patience with bailing him out. The end is tantalizing. The author leaves it open to the imagination what happens next. Mom’s got steak and creamed corn on the table on a flight back to Iowa or maybe a new adventure?This relates to 2010. Today the anti-hero, Evans, would not survive so long with new surveillance and improved scrutiny. In his time, he was a survivor twice!Tom Carter is an author who deserves attention and this book would make an excellent movie, especially with Hanks as Evans-Gump.

A fun read from cover to cover.Generally speaking sob stories are unappealing to me, unless they somehow end in a miracle. But that would run the risk of being too cliche. Tom Carter's "An American Bum in China" is neither a sob story nor a celebration of any character. It is just a true story, so brilliantly told that it reads like a grand adventure.Being a Chinese native, I'm quite blown away by the author's familiarity and accurate account of Chinese culture, customs, and street-smarts. Some of the more "underground" scenes are totally surprising even to me. In many ways, the book is also a realistic portrait of Xi's China. For that exact reason, it probably won't pass China's publishing censorship.I finished reading it in a matter of a couple afternoons and find myself wanting more.

This was such a sweet, fun read. Matthew Evans is basically a real-life Forrest Gump who finds himself in a bizarre assortment of adventures, mishaps and self-inflicted predicaments over the course of five years in China. This laugh-out-loud narrative concludes during the 2014 Hong Kong protests, which is no laughing matter...except for the fact that Evans is there for all the wrong reasons. Biographer Tom Carter is a brilliant storyteller, weaving in humor with insightful first-hand perspectives of Chinese culture and Sino-American politics. The drawings are a nice touch. Only 130 pages, I breezed through this in one Saturday afternoon.

I bought this book because I was so impressed by Tom Carters photography book China, a portrait of a people.The author has a way of transporting you to locations you never dreamed of going and makes you consider visiting IRLThis book is entertaining, informative and well written. The adventures of “the American bum” keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next, makes you root for the underdog while at the same time made me appreciate my own life more and made me want to pursue my own adventuresI didn’t want the book to endIt’s made me laugh, it was very relatable and brought back memories of my childhood somehow that hadn’t surfaced in yearsWell done

The growing problem of homelessness is nothing to laugh at, and there's definitely nothing funny about China - a country where certain forms of humor are literally outlawed - and yet here we have one of the funniest books I've ever read about either subject. Our protagonist is a Napoleon Dynamite type dimwit whose comically bad decisions propel him into five years of vagrancy and legal transgressions across China and Hong Kong. This is a brief, tight page-turner with none of the blah-blah-blah codswallop that authors these days stuff into their pages. The illustrations are remarkable, reminding us that Matthew Evans of Muscatine (who happens to be a real person) might be one of contemporary literature's most uncharismatic protagonists. How this book isn't being talked about more is beyond me; I'm assuming the subject matter is too taboo, or the book's title is too tongue-in-cheek to be taken seriously.

Tom Carter writes a cautionary tale about a hopelessly lost young man from Iowa in the clutches of China, Burma, Hong Kong and Macau. For anyone who has been abroad, near broke and nearly lost, it is thought provoking. Our story's protagonist, who must have some under-lying mental illness, is to be applauded for his ability to survive through poverty, isolation, hardship all mainly through his own making. The story is crisp and short, but the writing is spot on. Enjoyable read and a recommendation for anyone thinking of hitting Asia for a walkabout or just wanting to get lost in another person's odyssey.

As a danish expat living in Sweden with backpacking experience from Asia this book got my attention.I started reading this book during a bus ride but continued reading until the last page once arrived at my destination.The book of 114 pages is light reading although I had to look up a few words in the dictionary. It is interesting to get some insight behind the curtain in China and follow the travel adventure of Evans in persuade of happiness.It would be interesting to find out how Evans is doing today!I also know Carter's first book "CHINA: Portrait of a People". "An American Bum in China" gives a small insight into the travelling and work of that book.

This was a quick but great read. The random adventures of Matthew Evans is almost like a mini Forrest Gump, but without the luck and fortune.