Pasadena Expatriates in China

Rob Bowman still owns his home in Bungalow Heaven, though he rents it out ever since he moved to the Xicheng District of Beijing about three years ago to teach English at a high school and a middle school.

He used to work in the media center at PCC. Now he's married to his sweet wife Lily, a Chinese citizen. That's Dru Emm, a member of Pasadena Sister Cities Committee's China Subcommittee, on the right.

Brad became very homesick for Pasadena during our visit.



David Pierson used to work in the Pasadena bureau of the Los Angeles Times (back when LAT covered Pasadena, that is). Now he's a reporter with the Beijing bureau and loving every minute of it. He joined us for an official sister cities dinner one evening and I was happy to have an opportunity with catch up with him.



Chad Blackwell (in front of window) grew up in Pasadena, went to PCC and graduated from USC. Now he's the managing director of Jieyang Arts and Crafts, a promotional products company in Kunshan that has major corporate clients throughout the world.

We had lunch with Chad on our way back from Zhouzhuang Water Village. (My camera batteries died and I had to take this shot with my phone in funky lighting conditions.)

Rob, David and Chad are among the many, many former students of Professor Cathy Wei, who teaches Chinese language at PCC and is a member of the China Subcommittee of the Pasadena Sister Cities Committee.

Here's Cathy, wearing red, in the restaurant at our Beijing hotel:



And now Doug Emm, son of Dru, will be the next of Cathy's students to fly the coop: Chad offered him an internship -- just the kind of job he was hoping for to get his foot in the China door.

Here's Doug (center) at one of our many dinners, with Jack Wills and yours truly.