Claiming this year's crown for best memoir is Rachel DeWoskin's Foreign Babes in Beijing. DeWoskin's book deserves to be read as a real contribution to our understanding of what exactly is happening in China now. 
— The Asian Review of Books
 
In this deft, daffy comedy of errors, Ms. DeWoskin recounts her improbably adventures as a soap opera queen and her fumbling journey through the new, entrepreneurial China.
— New York Times
 
DeWoskin's cleverly layered account charts parallel culture clashes, one that she experiences as a Western woman in modern China, the other a TV-ready version of the first, tailored to Chinese expectations.
— The New Yorker
 
An intelligent and complex portrait of what it is like to be a young American woman on the mainland.
— Wall Street Journal
 
What makes DeWoskin's account so readable are the multifaceted ways she understands her role and her time in a changing China, and her cheerful, self-assured navigation through weird realms of cross cultural desire and misunderstanding.
— San Francisco Chronicle
 
For a real insider's look at life in modern China, readers should turn to the work of Rachel DeWoskin. . . she shows a society that is both immutable and developing at warp speed. 
— The Economist 
 
Ms. DeWoskin is an acute observer of how huge social shifts have impacted the lives of Beijing’s young people. 
— The Far Eastern Economic Review
 
Beneath all the amusing girl-about-town frippery, it is the exploration of politics, sexual, cultural and professional that is the engine that fuels this super-charged volume, and readers will feel lucky to have the sharp-eyed, yet sisterly, DeWoskin sitting in the driver's seat.
— Elle
 
Smart and funny, this memoir is a fortune cookie of a book: Crack it open, there's wisdom inside.
— Marie Claire
 
An appealing and intelligent memoir, told from a refreshing perspective: a woman's. DeWoskin focuses on her own story, which she presents delightfully and intelligently. She offers a fresh and clear-eyed portrait of a young woman's strange and wonderful adventures in modern China.
— International Herald Tribune
 
Exhibiting sensitivity and uncommon wisdom, DeWoskin delivers a candid and valuable portrait of a China few Westerners get to see.
— Booklist
 
DeWoskin herself makes a charming, rather humble narrator, and her prose is as gripping as it is constant. — Kirkus
 
Her memoir weaves humorous tales of Sino-US culture clashes both on and off the set with astute observations of the two cultures, as well as a significant amount of Chinese history.
— Publisher's Weekly
 
In her highly entertaining and enlightening memoir, she shares her fascinating perspective . . . She gives readers the perfect feel for today’s' China - a place where ancient and modern mingle . . .
— Library Journal
 
A fascinating inside look at China in transition.
— Seattle Post Intelligencer
 
DeWoskin [has] the perspective to collapse the personal and political to great, and occasionally hilarious, effect.
— Salon
 
An intelligent, funny memoir about five years in the fast lane in Beijing.
— People Magazine