China knowledge central to thriller series' appeal
Californian author and former Hollywood executive Lisa Brackmann, 54, has just published her second thriller set in China.
I accidentally ended up in China in 1979. I was 20 years old and stayed for six months. All of this development that you see now, none of it had happened in 1979. You got your clothes from markets with ration coupons.
[In the late 70s] China was very authoritarian. There was no doubt you were being watched and followed. People were heavily monitored if they had any association with you [as a foreigner]. One time we had these students take us around to look at Beijing's Democracy Wall. We were very obviously being followed by plain-clothes policemen. We ended up getting boats and rowing out on the lake in Beihai Park so we could talk.