Bill White

Letters From the Orient Bill White

As an ad man, I am more than aware that we are masters of self-delusion as our working life revolves around making the mundane appear magical and appealing. Yet perhaps I did know deep in my sub-conscious that I was an average hick in an average job in London. So in 1992, using the words of Lord Jim, the Conrad character, I moved to Hong Kong to 'begin with a clean slate', and attempt to resurrect my career. This was a time when Asia was going through a monumental change: China was now opening its doors to the West; Vietnam the same. Hong Kong was in its final years as a British colony. The old ways of life I saw on my travels, would soon disappear for ever and, at the same time, I was watching a new epoch in the history of the world come into play. These were interesting times indeed. Part memoir, part travel writing, this book covers a decade that is both recent but long gone. Using the genre of memoir gives structure to the reason I traveled, and also gives me license to talk about some of the places and societies that I encountered, as in my job a knowledge of people and they way they lived was something I needed to know and understand. In other chapters it is pure travel writing that stretches from the craziness of Tokyo to the tranquility of a desert island in the Flores Sea. Fuelled by egos and hedonism, the advertising business is a ridiculous trade wherever it is practiced. Asia is no exception. In my time it attracted its fair share of rogues, misfits and ne're-do-wells. Some of these haunt these pages. Across the decade that I worked in Asia, I wrote 'Letters' to friends and family that described my travels. These form the backbone of this work. Right from the start, I set out to chronicle the less written about corners of Asia. Travelling thousands of miles, I saw the extremes of poverty and experienced ridiculous heights of luxury. It was all in a day's work.