Former BeijingKids columnist and renowned Panda Dad Alan Paul has officially announced that the movie rights to his book Big in China, about his experiences living and playing music in Beijing, have been purchased as an option by Ivan Reitman’s (Animal House) Montecito Pictures.

To quote from Alan’s blog:

Reitman himself is signed on to produce and direct. Anything could still happen, of course, but the option is not sitting on a shelf. Writer Paul Fruchbom has been hired to write a screenplay. We have had a few conversations. I like him and I’m excited about where it’s headed and happy to be involved.

From the first time I spoke to my agent Doug Johnson, he was very enthusiastic about the prospects for Big in China, but I never really believed him, partly as a defense mechanism so that I couldn’t be disappointed and partly because I think that an important part of any agent’s jobs is relentless optimism.

Congratulations to Alan for his continued success. If the film does get made, it will be interesting to see how expat life in Beijing is depicted through a Hollywood lens this time around.

Two former Beijing expat parents who have authored books since returning home are in town beginning this weekend to promote their books.

Former beijingkids columnist Alan Paul returns to promote his memoir Big in China about being a ‘trailing spouse’ as well as blues musician in Beijing.

Susan Conley is in town to promote her book The Foremost Good Fortune, in which she chronicles her battle with breast cancer while juggling the stress of being an expat mom.

(BTW, Beijing readers will be happy to know that both books are available in Kindle digital editions on Amazon (see links in previous paragraph), as well as for local delivery order from the mainland Chinese Amazon.cn — Conley’s is here and Paul’s is here)

Here’s a quick look at their Beijing appearance schedules:

Susan Conley’s appearances in Beijing

Sunday, June 12, 3pm-4:30pm
China Stories Series: A Talk on Memoir and China as a Lead Character
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA). UCCA Loft, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China.
Free, in English with Chinese Translation.
www.ucca.org.cn
 

Tuesday, June 14, 7pm
Reading at The Bookworm
The Bookworm Beijing. Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chao Yang District.
Tickets: RMB 20 (Bookworm members), RMB 30 (non-members) includes a glass of wine, beer or soft drink.
www.beijingbookworm.com/happenings.php
 

Wednesday, June 15, 6:30pm
An Evening With Susan Conley
Presented by Viva and the American Chamber of Commerce.
Registration: 6:30pm – 7pm; Event: 7:10pm – 8pm, followed by drinks & book signing.
The Westin Beijing Chaoyang Hotel, 7 North Dongsanhuan Rd, Chaoyang District. (86)(10) 5922 8888
Tickets: RMB180 (members), RMB 250 (non-members)
www.vivabeijing.org

For a list of Conley’s appearances in other cities, visit her site here

Alan Paul’s appearances in Beijing

June 15, 7:30pm
Reading, Signing and Acoustic Performance at the Bookworm
Special appearance from Paul’s Woodie Alan bandmates Lu Wei and Zhang Yong for a brief acoustic performance.

June 16, 7:30pm
Reading, Signing and Acoustic Performance at The Orchard
A return to the lovely restaurant where Woodie Alan began, for a reading and talk. Woodie Alan bandmates Lu Wei and Zhang Yong will also be there for a brief acoustic performance.

June 17, 9:00pm
Woodie Alan Reunion, Book Release party at Jianghu Jiuba
A Woodie Alan partial reunion gig at hutong bar Jianghu Jiuba, often discussed in Big in China. Paul will perform with Woodie Alan bandmates Lu Wei and Zhang Yong, plus some special guests. CD and Book giveaways all night long.

For a list of Alan Paul’s other appearances in China, visit here

Charlie Sheen, radiation and civil strife may be dominating the headlines in the US, but the now (in)famous “Tiger Mom” keeps popping up in the news like a nagging cough – a culmination, if you will, of Western anxiety over an ascendant China. At the time of writing, Chua and her husband were scheduled to give a talk the same day at the New York Public Library about parenting.

And as we reported earlier, former BeijingKids columnist Alan Paul has also been making waves lately with his book Big in China, a movie deal in the works and now a new post on the Wall Street Journal blogs aptly titled “Tiger Mom … Meet Panda Dad” in which he explains his “aversion to Tiger Parenting:”

“Living in a Beijing housing compound, I watched Western and African kids running through the streets in roving packs of fun-seekers while their Chinese friends looked dolefully out the window in the midst of long hours spent practicing violin, piano or character-writing. When they were done, they unwound by picking up video game consoles. It looked like a sad, lonesome way to grow up and nothing I would ever prescribe to my children. And of course it’s not the only style of Chinese parenting. I saw plenty of kids smashing these same stereotypes.”

Read the rest of the post here.

Also riding on the wave of Tiger Mom-mania is young adult novelist Cara Chow’s upcoming book, Bitter Melon, written from the perspective of a “Tiger Cub:”

“Though I have a very positive relationship with my mother today, we struggled a lot when I was a teen. My mother wanted me to be the best, and her way of motivating me was by being very hard on me. Unfortunately, I was a very sensitive kid, so I took my mother’s words and actions personally. This not only strained our relationship for many years, but it also affected my confidence and self-image well into my twenties. As I got older, I realized that many of my friends and acquaintances also had issues with their parents and with success and failure. I also realized that those who didn’t have these problems could not understand the angst that drove those who did. I wrote Bitter Melonfor both groups of people, to give a voice to the former while educating the latter, in a way that was entertaining and compelling.”

More here.

Writer, journalist, erstwhile BeijingKids columnist and former Shunyi resident Alan Paul and his book Big in China have been making waves since its release and now comes news from the Hollywood Reporter that "Ivan Reitman and Tom Pollock’s Montecito Pictures has acquired the film rights."

According to the post: "Big in China is being developed with an eye for Reitman to direct. Project is out to writers."

Whether or not the film actually goes through to production and distribution remains to be seen (witness the still unresolved saga of the film adaptation of fellow expat alumnus Rachel DeWoskin’s Foreign Babes in Beijing), but we’re genuinely stoked for Alan and the potential further hype and publicity it will bring Beijing.

Read our full interview with Alan here.

Tune into the beijingkids blog each Thursday as we take you on a quick tour of items from around the web, all relating (however tangentially) to parenthood and family life in Beijing. Previous posts can be viewed here.

1. So maybe Junior is a bit too young for an iPhone (or your child’s school doesn’t allow them). Beijing parents worried about their kid’s whereabouts in this era of school stampedes, kidnappings and stabbings can keep tabs on them with this handy limited-use cellphone distributed free by the Beijing Red Cross (parents need only to pay for two years of service at RMB 840). According to this People’s Daily article, parents can apply to receive one of these phones on this Chinese-language only website: www.hongxianjijin.com.

2. Who knew Beijing has one of the world’s best under-12 recreational hockey teams? The Beijing Little Wolf hockey team just won their division in Canada’s Bell Capital Cup (the "holy grail" of youth hockey), outscoring their opponents 35-4 and remaining undefeated throughout the tournament. Despite their success, most of the players will hang up their skates once returning to Beijing to focus on  preparing for the fate-altering college entrance exam they’ll take when in high school.

3. Surprise, surprise: A poll conducted of China’s singles by the All-China Women’s Federation indicates that most female singles pay much more attention to economic power, while male singles care much more about looks. Perhaps more surprising is that 70.8 percent of women say they would only marry a man if he has a house. Start saving, guys!

4. Ahh, sex education in the schools. Two weeks ago we showed you how one Beijing school is teaching the birds and the bees by having their students pretend to be sperm. Now comes this news that third graders in one Chaoyang primary school are touring the bathrooms of the opposite sex to learn what makes boys and girls different.

5. Pregnant moms have it rough. Not only do they have to deal with the physical and emotional trial of 9 months of carrying a baby, but it seems like there’s a neverending string of news stories out there saying that if they eat the wrong things, stress out, or even listen to the wrong music during their pregnancy, it’s going to determine the fate of their baby. Now dads can share a little bit of the blame, as this new study suggests that what papa’s eating before creating his offspring could influence his child’s risk of disease in the future.

Former beijingkids columnist Alan Paul’s book on his life as a parent in Beijing is released March 1.

6. Former beijingkids columnist Alan Paul releases his memoir Big in China about raising kids and playing in the Beijing-based blues band Woodie Alan on March 1. Former Beijing resident and writer James Fallows has this to say about the forthcoming release: "Alan Paul’s evolution from expat-village ‘trailing spouse’ to star of the Chinese music scene stands for countless similar developments underway in China. I hope many people read this book — and consider a similar adventure themselves." Pre-order it on Amazon here (Kindle edition available) and get ready for it by reading some of Paul’s columns from the beijingkids archive here. Congrats Alan!

7. Anyone who’s visited a local hospital in China knows how big antibiotics use is here — and rampant misuse and overuse of antibiotics is taking its toll on the population here. According to the director of the behavioral medicine branch of the Chinese Medical Association, of the 1.8 million deaf children in China, 60 percent lost their hearing because of improper drug use, largely related to antibiotics. Wow.

8. Good luck enforcing that one: A draft law being considered in China will "require adult children of elderly parents to visit their parents regularly and must care for their spiritual needs and cannot neglect or isolate them," according to this article in the China Daily.

9. Do your kids take a bus to school every day? Might want to check that. According to this piece from the Global Times, even Beijing is rampant with dangerous school buses, mainly due to the fact that new standards in school bus safety enacted in February last year have proven impossible to enforce.

10. Caixin Online’s English website gives us this interesting and even quite artistic personal essay about the history of marriage licenses in China from a professor emeritus of Yale University.