Personal File
Name： Laurence BrahmChinese Name： Long AnzhiNationality： AmericanOccupation： Lawyer， InvestmentConsultant， Writer，Charity WorkerTime in China： 26 yearsIn the early 1980s， he was drawn towardsChina by some mysterious force. In the past 2years here， he has been a student， a lawyer， awriter， and an investment consultant. Now hespeaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese， ownsthree courtyard houses， and devotes much of histime appealing to authorities for the protectionof hutongs. Meet Laurence Brahm， an Americanrooted in the hutongs of Beijing， for whomShangri-La is the ultimate spiritual realm.
326 Laurence Brahm， an American with the Chinese name of Laurence，is a typical old Chinese hand. He is 6.1 feet tall， thin and graceful，with an expressive face under silken hair. He has spent more thanhalf his 46 years in China; he has studied further， been a lawyer aswell as an investment consultant for several international corporations.
He has written over twenty books and made a documentary film.
His books are ideal guidebooks for Westerners wanting to enterthe Chinese market. He has made great strides in both writing andbusiness. The Nan Long Asia-Pacific Investment Co. Ltd.， founded byhim， may have achieved economic results， but it also emphasizes thesustainable development of culture. His speculations on philosophyand religion in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are widely read and talkedabout.
Upon meeting the interviewer， he asks at once， “What perspectivewill you take?” I laugh to myself： who the interviewer， who the interviewee?
Prelife Destiny
A conventional question put to an obviously unconventional person： “When did you begin to take an interest in China? Or， when didyou begin to have a China complex? Without any hesitation， Laurence answered， “In my prelife. An unexpected answer， to say the least. He smiles meaningfully，indicating that he’s not joking. He tells us that he believes in Buddhistrebirth and he himself might have been a Chinese in his prelife. Whenasked what kind of person he would have been before， he says， unfathomably，“It’s hard to tell. Laurence Brahm was born in 1961 ， and spent his childhood inNew York and Connecticut. His first contact with Chinese culturecame from the Chinatowns in the two states. He completed his highereducation at Duke University， North Carolina and learned Chinesefor two years while pursuing his bachelor’s degree in law. In 1981， hecame to China for the first time， alone. For one thing， he was interestedin Chinese culture; he was also more interested in Chinese reform.
It took him almost six hours from Beijing Capital InternationalAirport to Nankai University of Tianjin， because the roads were reallybad. The bus rumbled and jolted all the way to the university. This32 8 experience， however， did little to frustrate his ambitions， or sour hisdelight at finally having arrived in this country.
Laurence didn’t know too much about China at the time， for “theAmerican press gave people the impression that China was still in theCultural Revolution and that the Red Guards were running around inthe streets… When he set foot on this land， he found that China had alreadyundergone a lot of changes in the post-Mao era. What impressed himmost initially was a small free market he found in Tianjin.
“Some brave farmers brought their surplus products — for instance，peanuts and green soy beans — to the city and sold them onthe sidewalks， and this set a precedent for free market，” he says. “Itwas a microcosm of the Chinese economy， and from this you couldforesee what road China’s economy would take. He took courses in Chinese at Nankai University with the aim ofachieving complete fluency. Not one to stick to the straight and narrow，he didn’t believe that reading aloud in class and practicing oralChinese with overseas students like himself was the best way to learnChinese. He would thus skip class and ride an old bike to visit small hutongs， where he would meet and chat with the people living there.
“I especially enjoy taking a stroll inside hutongs，” he says. “Thehutongs of Tianjin are quite different from those of Beijing. The buildingsin the hutongs are typical northern style; yet sometimes when youstep out of a hutong， you come to the front of a little square， which istypical Western style. It is really amazing. However， the most interesting aspect was practicing oral Chinesewith the locals. The people of Tianjin are warm-hearted and humorous，and often talk as glibly as talk-show hosts. This is confirmed bythe fact that most crosstalk performers are from Tianjin. In the peopleof Tianjin， Laurence found a shortcut to improving his Chinese. Sometimes，to lure people into talking with him， he would perform smallmagic tricks.
“I liked communicating with the common people living inhutongs， for I could speak in Chinese and they understood me， whichmade me very happy，” he says. “I often made mistakes， which amusedthem. “This is communication， which is of vital importance，” he continues.
“Many big conflicts between China and America are causedby the lack of communication. Without communication， people wouldnever get to know each other.” It was thanks to his frequent communicationwith the locals that his Chinese made rapid improvement; hestill had an American accent but was still completely understood bythe Chinese.
Half a year later， he went to the Chinese University of HongKong to pursue a master’s degree in law. In his spare time， he took ona part-time lawyer’s job and continued to learn Mandarin; by now， hehad also mastered Cantonese. He continued his study in the East-WestCenter of Hawaii for his doctor’s degree in law.
