The Author

 Ashley is a recent college grad turned expat who is living in Shanghai, China and teaching English to kindergartners. She specializes in 18th and 19th century French and late-Imperial Chinese art history, as well as international advertising and French and Chinese language. She wears many hats, and La Vie en China? serves as her platform to share travel tips, book reviews, photos, and any other tid-bits that come up along the way.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to “La Vie en China”! Don’t get the name? It’s story narrates the inspiration for this blog and will be a consistent theme throughout my posts, etc. “La Vie en Rose” a popular song by Louis Armstrong about the joys of Paris translates into English as “life through rose colored glasses”. What does this have to do with me? Or more importantly with China?

Like most American females, I grew up fascinated by France: its beautiful language, elegant women, and rich culture. In college my childhood fascination bloomed into full-blown francophilia as I extensively studied 19th century French art history. What wasn’t to love: the Impressionists, the flaneur, cafe culture, La Belle Epoque, Montmartre? As part of my studies at SMU I even spent two summers in Paris: the first studying abroad at the Louvre Museum and the second conducting independent research solo while subletting an apartment across from Les Deux Magots cafe. This behavior caused everyone, and even myself at times, to assume I would of course go on to study French art when working towards my Ph.D. in art history. But, never one to be simple, I am not following that path but instead intending to focus my graduate studies on late-Imperial Chinese art history.

For me a life filled with travel, history, and most importantly other cultures is ”La Vie en Rose”.  The major obstacle ahead of me as I pursue the road to a Ph.D. is learning Chinese.  This brings me to my next adventure and the namesake of the blog. In order to learn the language, experience the culture, and interact with the people, I have decided to move to China and see what this country that touts a population of 1.3 billion is truly about. I will be teaching English at the kindergarten level in Shanghai and experiencing everything the country has to offer along the way. La Vie en China? (or “Life in China”) allows me the privilege of sharing both my adventures with you, as well as travel tips, book recommendations, and hopefully a little inspiration so you too can take the opportunity to embark on the journey of your life as an arm-chair traveler or a real-life nomad!

Thanks for reading and please come again!

Happy Travels ~Ashley

You can email me at ashleybruckbauer at gmail dot com.