Waijiao

Every year, hundreds, if not thousands, of foreigners move to China to teach English - they are known by many names, including waijiao, or "foreign teacher." Some remain for a few months, some for a year, and others stay indefinitely, continually drawn by the challenges and peculiar enjoyments of living in the country. Owen Tucker, along with his partner, Lily, spent four years in China, beginning in 2007. Waijiao is a graphic memoir that describes the life and perspective of one foreign teacher. It is nonfiction but not precisely memoir, in that aspects of different years, cities, schools and students have been combined into one story. It is essentially a comic essay.