Monica Liau
Monica Liau has lived in China for over three years. During this time, she has been guided mostly by her stomach. Starting in 2006 as a research student in Beijing, she came to the conclusion that the duck was good but the sandstorms and politicians unbearable. After graduating from Mt Holyoke College in Massachusetts, U.S., in 2007, she moved up to Heilongjiang University for a language fellowship in Harbin. The cold drove her beneath her covers, or to Korean restaurants heated by coal stoves and run by immigrants just come over the border. Lesson learned from this experience – stay away from greasy, dark meat. It is most likely dog.
Next, she fled south and west to conduct a Fulbright research project on Ecotourism Development in Yunnan and Sichuan. In Yunnan, she feasted on exotic fruits, fried bugs and the occasional yak pancake as she traveled from tourism site to tourism site. Research in Chengdu went very slowly, as most of her time was spent eating spicy food, drinking beer and playing mahjong.
Monica moved to Shanghai in January 2009, despite her aunt’s warning of the terrible food, expensive lifestyle and high-stress environment. In addition to working with the editor crew at Enjoy, she also works as a freelance business writer and public media consultant. Shanghai sees her spending most of her time cutting costs by biking to meetings and eating at hole-in-the-wall restaurants.