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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Top five books that you ought to read before the coming and Asia expat. What are we talking about here? Well a lot of people, especially lately, seem to be looking more and more at Asia. I think there are a lot of reasons for this; I think people are seeing that Asia definitely is on the rise economically; there is a lot going on out here; Thailand specifically there is a lot of developments that I think a lot of people want to get in on getting into Thailand, getting into the market, learning the market. All of this stuff kind of compounds to kind of create a cohort of putative Asia hands, Asia expats. I have had a lot of people ask me over the years but here recently, it seems like the past couple of weeks specifically, books that they think people should read before coming here. I got to thinking about it and so I did this video.

I am going to have one that is kind of an honourable mention so actually there is kind of six to mention here. I will go ahead with the honourable mention first. That would be a book I read years ago called Mr. China. It was about a person that was an expat, went into China to do business in kind of the early era, I would say in the early 2000s, lot of interesting insight in that, in fact quite a bit. Now the reason I stated it as an honourable mention is I don't know that China is really quite the hot spot from a western perspective for again folks that are looking to expatriate; make their money in Asia; make their living in Asia. I don't know that China is still in the same place that it was with regard to those people's perspectives as it was say 20 years ago. So that is kind of why we put that in honourable mention. Now three of the books on this list are actually from the same author which I will get to in a minute. 

One book I read was a book called Ugly Americans, and I read that years ago. I read that long before I ever even dreamed of coming out to Asia and that was about a person that got into the, as I recall, sort of the stock brokering game in Japan and I think it was in the '90s, might have been in the 80s. I remember reading that and that was quite insightful as to kind of the cultural interchange as well as the way different cultures do business especially out here in Asia. That was an interesting one. Another one is well again, this is one of the books from the one author of three of these books. One of them is called King Rat by an author named James Clavell who in my opinion arguably is the great fiction author with respect to the West's interaction with Asia; the sort of interaction between the Orient and the Occident. Clavell is in my opinion the best, the master if you will. He just does a uniquely superb job. The three books that are mentioned here are my three favourites of his but even in his Asia series, ones that I was not quite as over the top about, they are still quite good so if you read Clavell's books, I think there is a lot of insight for the person who wants to be an expat. Now King Rat you wouldn't exactly think that that would be a great book because it is about people who were in prison, in Changi Prison in Singapore during the second World War, mostly British and the main character is Corporal King who is an American. King Rat, he provides a great deal of insight though into again just the sort subtle nuances that makeup being an expat out here, make up being somebody who is kind of transplanted and living in Asia. Another one, this is Bangkok specific and I was kind of trying to think of the best books; there is a kind of a subset of fiction and even non-fiction which I would sort of call the Pulp Thailand books, it is like the pulp fiction if you will kind of, but it is specifically about Thailand and there are a lot of great books out there about Thailand. I know some great authors who have written books about Thailand. The reason I pointed out this specific book is I literally read it the week I came here. It has had pretty substantial impact on my thinking or it did at the time. I kind of look back on it more with nostalgia than look back on it as a sincere reference guide. It's a book called Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye. Again, I read that I believe the week that I arrived in Thailand some 15 years ago and yeah it provided some insight. It was not the end all, be all with respect, I don't think I really kind of question whether there has ever been sort of the definitive novel or non-fiction book that's out there if you will, about an Expat in Thailand, a foreigner in Thailand. I just don't know if there's one out there. There was a biography I read at the same time called Falcon which is about a gentleman named Constantine Falcon going back hundreds of years ago. That was also interesting from a nonfictional standpoint but again I wouldn't say it was definitive. 

Then two other books on my list, again I guess the list got a little bigger, we have added two on. Falcon was an honourable mention too but Noble House and Tai-Pan and I have a hard time judging which one of these is number one with a bullet. I would say they are both number one with a bullet maybe. Yeah, Tai-Pan actually should be read first because it is about the founding of Hong Kong, the British coming to Hong Kong and the old China traders, the old Tai-Pans as they were called. Then Noble House picks up the story about what happens to the descendants of the main character some roughly 100 years later, 120 years later actually I think. So both books when read together are quite interesting and in my opinion provide a great deal of insight.  Mr. Clavell wrote both of those as well and he spent a great deal of time out in Asia. I believe he actually was in Changi Prison during the War so obviously he had unique perspective on that which allowed him to write King Rat. But yeah, I really can't stress enough, Tai Pan and Noble House are based in China, specifically Hong Kong and Noble House is interesting because of the changes that were happening by the time that book was coming out in sort of the orientation if you will of mainland China to Hong Kong and the interplay there and we are kind of seeing the Saga continue to unfold in real time as events unfold here in the moment. So reading both of those books I think provides substantial insight. Do I think any of these books are the end all, be all primer on how to make it as an Expat? No. What I do think that they will provide the reader is a kind of paradigm to have and really it's not just a Thailand thing. I specifically said Asia in the title because this is not just about Thai Expats. If anything, again I mean this, I don't think there has been the definitive book; like Taipan and Noble House to me, if somebody said in 1991 "What book should I read when going to Hong Kong?" I would have just said Tai Pan and Noble House. Just read those. You would have a substantial understanding of the way things work in Hong Kong. That's me as an outside observer. I could be totally off. There could be a million Hong Kong residents that burn me in the comments but that's just my observation.

Again, there is no specific book that is going to give you any major insight into exactly how to do things as an expat in any specific country but I think that all of these, any or all of these books provides at least some food for thought for anyone thinking, especially the younger, retirees not so much because retirees they are coming here to retire. These books in my mind provide insight to anybody who's looking to come to Asia, make their living and make their way here.