The Story of Brian Linden: Finding Home in China

Finding Home in China, published by CITIC Publishing, is a memoir of Brian Linden's 35 years of living in China.

This is the story of an American‘s “Chinese dream” - showcasing the originality and perseverance of the Linden Centre brand.

Here is also a love letter from Brian Linden, expressing his deep passion for his second home, China.

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Click to purchase Finding Home in China

Why China? For a young man looking to change his life, the more appropriate question would be - why not China? I was increasingly resigned to the fact that I would most likely continue to do what I was currently doing, cleaning carpets, only spending much more time doing it.

“Brian, we have chosen you because you are a worker; you are part of the proletariat. You can benefit most from this opportunity. Your essay touched us at the embassy. We want to give you a chance for a new beginning.”

——Finding Home in China, Chapter 1

Dear Friends:

Thirty-eight years ago I found a new home.  Over 10,000 kilometers from Chicago, China welcomed me like a returning family member and has never let go.  There are so many cherished memories collected during this extended journey.  These recollections tell a different story of China from what some in the outside world receive; it is a lived story of inclusiveness and curiosity that has occurred within four decades of China’s miraculous economic and social changes.

While the outside world’s opinion of and knowledge about China was becoming increasingly limited, I felt that it was time to share my stories about this country.  The book was my initial response to all the concerned messages I was receiving from abroad in February, 2020.  My family and friends were worried that my wife, Jeanee, and I would be exposed to COVID and encouraged us to return to the US. While the village loudspeakers broadcasted warnings to stay within our homes, I decided to respond to all these messages from abroad with a heartfelt letter (which helped form the final chapter of the book) which reflected Jeanee’s and my trust in the Chinese people.  I concluded the letter with an assertion that we would not flee China. 

Brian in Xizhou, Dali

The temporary closure of our heritage hotels provided me with time to reflect on the experiences that had brought my wife and me to a small village in northwest Yunnan.  I revisited my initial feelings about China through personal journals and I had written to my family during my initial three years in Beijing and Nanjing.  In these writings, I looked back upon a young American man being shaped by a 5,000-year-old culture in the 1980s. The evolution struck me as very natural, and the young man who emerged from those pages was a more mature and humane person. 

Romanticist vitality was required to travel in China during the eighties. While the continent unfurled north, south, and west from Beijing for thousands of miles, little to nothing was known to the traveler about what resided in this vastness. Maps and basic guides introduced provincial capitals and the occasional sacred mountain or an ancient temple, but it was the spaces between that excited me, stirring feelings of rippled disquietude. The unknown and its potential danger are what allured me, as they do many travelers, but it is that same uneasiness that makes every departure so difficult.

Brian and Jeanee Yan'an 1987 

The Irish philosopher, Edmund Burke, described a similar ferment when looking out at the turbulent sea. Like a sailor leaving port on a long journey, the irrevocability of a departure for the unknown has always unsettled me, causing sleepless nights of both anticipation and fear. I boldly targeted the most remote destinations and the most difficult routes to challenge myself. My youth's insecurities were wrestled within China's remote regions, and I became a more confident and wise person. But until this day, I have never lost those feelings of respect and fear for the unknown.

Traveling in Changzhou 1987 

Traveling in Baotou 1987 

——Finding Home in China, Chapter 2

On a dirt road just south of the Yellow River, in an overcrowded, unheated bus filled with farmers, produce, and animals, Jeanee and I spotted a colorful temple floating alone on the frozen plains. We had heard that a building had been erected close to the purported site of Genghis Khan's tomb. The temple's blue and yellow tiles contrasted with its surroundings, an Oz-like mirage enveloped in sepia. Pyramids of rocks crowned by fluttering prayer flags dotted the landscape. We yelled through the compressed masses to let us off.

finding Genghis Khan's Tomb 1987

——Finding Home in China, Chapter 3

My wife, Jeanee, and I formed our relationship on the Chinese mainland. After returning to the United States in the 1990s, we had dreamed of coming back to China. Our goal was to create something entirely new in China: a center that would be a vehicle for real cultural and intellectual exchange, an Arcadian retreat that would allow both Chinese and foreign visitors to go beyond the homogeneity of the country’s urban tourist experiences and immerse themselves in its rich and varied traditions and 5,000-year history.

In 2004, we went back to China with our two boys to try to make this dream come true.

Linden family Xizhou Jan 2018

The next day we opened the lock on the large Yang Pinxiang compound, a castle-like structure floating in the rice fields across the street from Yang Long’s home. The twenty-foot tall walls were constructed of rammed earth and were burnished a deep sienna by the amaranthine sun and capped by a regal roofline. Three-meter high wood doors creaked from disuse, and spider-webs added another veil of defense that we had to push through to reach the central courtyard’s carved entrance. I did not know that this entryway is considered one of the most important intact examples of classical Bai architecture, and many books about China’s architectural traditions include it. The entrance’s beauty and size intimidated me and, yet, felt so familiar.

Painting the outside walls 2006

——Finding Home in China, Chapter 4

We founded the Linden Centre in Dali, Xizhou. We hoped to create a new model that was respectful of the local people, honoring the cultural and social resources of the area, thus ensuring that tourism would benefit the local community.

In the second half of this book, I recorded my observations as a first-hand observer of the Chinese countryside. I hoped that my book could provide a more humane narrative about China, stories that could balance the many uneven news stories told about this country in the West.  The book is not meant to be a polemic, a structured argument to “prove” a certain attribute about China.  Instead it represents a return to storytelling, an older man reflecting on his 38 years of unique experiences in this country.

English corner in Xizhou, 2009

In many parts of Asia, the social life that exists in the streets, in front of and alongside the built landscape, reflects more accurately the culture of the community than the buildings themselves. Food vendors, stallholders and shoppers often overtake the fronts of these structures, and cultural vibrancy remains palpable within these social contexts. However, in China, we often remove this vitality from our midst, thereby leaving our architecture naked to the viewers. Without the people who once animated the social environment, buildings are exposed for their incongruity. Frivolous designs become the norm in the pursuit of attention and prestige. The past, removed both socially and physically, becomes inconsequential.

——Finding Home in China, Chapter 5

The Song poet, Su Dongpo, wrote one of the most apropos verses of where we call home. 此心安处是吾乡(A place wherever I can find inner peace would be my hometown). I unveiled elucidation and inspiration in the shadows of the Himalayas in one of the world’s most storied cultures. My inner peace has never since wandered beyond these shores.

In November, my book, Xun Xiang Zhong Guo (Finding Home in China), will be released by CITIC Publishers.  In many ways, the book is a type of love letter written to the Chinese people: a testament to the richness of China’s culture and a show of respect for its industriousness and hospitality.

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Click to purchase Finding Home in China