“In a Previous Life, I Was Chinese”

Author: Julian R. Taplin

RMB 120

253 pages, paperback

Published by Foreign Languages Press in May 2012, Beijing

AMERICAN psychologist Julian R. Taplin first moved to China in 1998 at the age of 61. Having been diagnosed with chronic leukemia two years earlier, he was ready to live every day to the full.

Since that time, since accepting an invitation from the UN to work in Sichuan as a consultant, he has made a sizable impact on China, and China has certainly had impact on him. So much so that only one chapter of his memoirs, Happiness at the End of the Road, is dedicated to the 60 years before China became a significant part of his life. The rest details his life, career and friends in China.

This book gives foreign readers a chance to feel the pulse of daily life in China and meet its people. Through it, readers experience the building of the Dawo You’ai School and witness children’s psychological rehabilitation after the deadly Wenchuan earthquake. In it Julian lays out his relationship with a Chinese family, life as a writer, exchanges with young students, and efforts to build a rural school. These four main threads are tightly interwoven.

As a former clinical psychologist centered on child, youth and family mental health, during his time in China Julian cooperated with the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences and initiated the Three Skills Program (TSP). The program focuses on children’s psychological health education and family education in China. He has also written, translated and published 19 books in this field for Chinese parents and children, in cooperation with Chinese scholars.

Over more than a decade, Julian has shared his extensive knowledge and experience in China, giving hundreds of lectures across the country to audiences consisting of students, parents, and teachers as well as hotel workers, public servants, and the unemployed. He has held training courses for thousands of teachers, many of whom later became advocates of the TSP educational concept.

In 2003 Julian experienced further health problems, this time undergoing major heart surgery. It once again focused his thoughts on the transitory nature of life. “It turned relationships, understanding, closeness and collaboration into the things that make life precious,” he writes.

It was three years after this event that Julian set out to raise funds to build the Dawo Primary School, having been shocked at the poor conditions of the area. Dawo is only 20 km away from Ya’an City, but the unsurfaced clay road meant that it might as well be in the middle of nowhere.

The old school was on the site of a 300-year-old temple, with two adjacent classrooms built of adobe and wood. Julian donated all the royalties he made in China and encouraged his family and friends to donate to the school.