14 Days in a Chinese Jail: Story of Survival & Growth 🇨🇳 🚔

🏈🚓 What happens when your dream of living abroad turns into a nightmare? Former American football player Chancellor Jackson found himself arrested and thrown into a Chinese jail for 14 days.

In this jaw-dropping episode of Expat Experts, Chancellor shares the full story—how he ended up behind bars, what jail life in China is really like, and how that experience changed the course of his life forever.

🎧 We talk about:

• The moments leading up to his arrest in China
• Daily life inside a Chinese detention centre
• Coping mechanisms, mental strength & culture shock
• His journey from trauma to publishing “14 Days in Beijing”
• How he's now helping others share their stories

🎙️ Whether you're an expat, traveler, or just love a powerful comeback story, this one will leave you speechless.

📚 Chancellor books:

• 14 Days in Beijing
• Real love never dies
• The power of becoming

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:26 Guest Background & Expat Journey
• 14:34 Biggest Challenges & Surprising Moments
• 33:56 Expat Life Hack & Advice
• 35:48 Cultural Deep Dive & Fun Comparisons
• 49:39 Audience Q&A
• 55:36 Guest Promotion
• 57:17 Outro

Transcript

0:00
i was arrested and then uh served 14 days in the beijing penitentiary i graduated from st with a bachelor degree
0:06
in communication and media studies i landed my first job to english to kids in china remember any dish that you
0:13
missed these years being in the us 24 hours a day 7 days a week 15 men to one
0:19
sale nine wooden beds three soups a day and all i had was one plastic bowl and
0:24
one plastic spoon i didn't know the hygiene was as bad as it was the first
0:31
three days i was the only foreigner only english speaker in the sale
0:37
welcome to expert experts today's guest has a truly fascinating story to share
0:43
chancellor jackson is an educator former athlete best-selling author and
0:48
entrepreneur his journey has taken him from the american football field to the classroom to the streets of beijing and
0:55
eventually to the top of the amazon bestseller charts tensor's life changed
1:00
forever when he was arrested and detained in china for 14 days an experience that not only tested his
1:07
resilience but also inspired his debut book 14 days in beijing since then he
1:12
become a mentor for aspiring authors helping them navigate the self-publishing journey and also has
1:17
written two romance novels exploring emotional intelligence so sit back relax
1:23
and let's explore this expert experience together so chancellor uh welcome to the show i'm
Guest Background & Expat Journey
1:30
so happy to to have you here when i when i heard about your story and and your
1:35
resilience and cultural insights and things that i want to hear and ask you like i i find it very interesting uh
1:42
what happened to you so i i hope we will arrive to that point but uh first of all welcome and and uh let's start a little
1:49
bit from the beginning where are you from and and and what are you doing with your life right now oh uh the name is
1:55
chancellor k jackson born and raised in atlanta georgia um i played football
2:01
vast majority of my life um so that's a huge component to my
2:07
uh i played all throughout high school i earned the opportunity to play in college as well i played all four years
2:12
down at stson university that's in florida um after i graduated from stson with a bachelor's degree in
2:17
communication and media studies i landed my first job teaching english to kids in china so that's what took me over there
2:24
that's how i ended up over there um my contract was supposed to be a year i only end up doing six months because
2:31
things went left um i was arrested and then uh served 14 days in the beijing
2:36
penitentiary um and pretty much how that all came to be uh it's april 4th 2019
2:43
it's a day off for me i'm going to get ready to head to an event to meet some friends and hang out just have fun and
2:49
stuff um but before i go i pregame you know what i'm saying now for those that don't know what pregaming is here in
2:55
america when somebody say we f to pregame that means we going to party a little bit at the house before we go out
3:01
party some more so that's all i was doing i was drinking a little chinese wine cooler smoking a little cannabis uh
3:08
i get done get dressed make sure i got everything i need before i walk out the door as i'm doing that i hear a knock
3:15
curious to see who it is i look through the peeppole and there's the three officers from the beijing police randomly exactly that's how my face
3:25
put everything up open the door they question me about drugs i'm sitting here playing the fool like i don't know what
3:30
they talking about um and then they drug test me right there on the spot and once
3:35
they pulled the drug test out i say "yeah it's over with." i just knew it was over with um do the drug test the
3:41
results came back instantly failed it of course um and now at this point all
3:46
forms of communication cease to exist cuffs are thrown on me and i'm not sure what's going to happen next uh we bounce
3:53
around from precinct to precinct before i'm take actually taken to the jail while i'm housed and um i'm locked up 24
3:59
hours a day 7 days a week 15 men to one sale nine wooden beds three soups a day
4:05
and all i had was one plastic bowl and one plastic spoon nothing was explained to me as far as how the process works
4:13
what are the rules of the jail how the jail even operates uh nobody knows i'm in this situation i don't know what my
4:19
specific charges are how long i'm going to be here uh and i'm sitting there with 14 other chinese men none of which i can
4:25
speak to it ain't looking too good right about now but most importantly i got to hold myself accountable i knew my
4:33
decision making and i knew the repercussions from my choices so now that things have hit the fan and here we
4:38
are and i got nobody to point to blame but myself so however this plays out i got to take it to the chin um i don't
4:46
know how it's going to play out but i know when it's all said and done my spirit is still going to be intact my
4:52
mental is still going to be intact i'm still going to be me um so i was just like just take note of every minor
4:57
detail because it's going to be a great story to tell once you out of this predicament um and i'm here to tell y'all i did 14 days as you know what i'm
5:04
saying go throughout the story you don't know what's going on you learning as you go till one day they just call you to
5:10
come on um so my dad randomly okay wow
5:16
crazy so they uh yeah so after i was released from jail they took me straight to my apartment to pack up the rest of
5:22
my stuff and then i was taken straight to the airport where i was deported from the country so i came back to america
5:27
back to square one all over again trying to figure out how i'm going to bounce back from falling on my face um
5:34
i started writing 14 days in beijing that summer uh coaching football and
5:40
still continue to work in education here we are years later um we six books in
5:45
four that i've written two additionals that i published helped publish from
5:50
other authors started my publishing company in 2021 um 14 days beijing has had a lot of success since then um so
5:58
yeah man we now we just coaching people through the writing and publishing process cool
6:05
i mean i already like i have so many questions where where to start but i would i would
6:12
go prey to the beginning like you said how a big important part of their life at that point of time was playing
6:17
football but you went you went abroad not to do that you went abroad to to because of your studies and to work
6:24
there you were offered a job opposition there what what exactly were you pl what were you doing in in china for those uh
6:31
6 months i was teaching kids i was teaching kids as young as 3 years old all the way up to 14 but mainly working
6:37
with between ages three and about seven
6:44
with younger kids teaching english as a foreign language cool did you know
6:49
anything of what was waiting for you there like did you have any cultural expectations i mean for sure like the
6:54
fact of that the police can come to your place open the door and make you a drug test is something that probably you
7:00
would not be expecting but were you knowing where you were going more or less uh yeah i knew i was going i knew
7:07
it was a communist country um and i knew like it was it was a strict place where
7:12
i was going so that's why i said accountability like once things have hit the fan and now i'm locked up it's like
7:18
well you knew what you was doing you knew you knew exactly the repercussions from those making those decisions so hey
7:25
we got to take this to the chin for sure that's the first and foremost always hold yourself accountable
7:30
makes sense um why why china that's one of the biggest
7:37
questions that i have like you had the passion for the country or you were curious about it or you applied only to there well it's ironic cuz um in the
7:45
introduction of my book i flash back to a table conversation me my mom and my
7:50
brother are having one saturday morning at breakfast i was i was probably like
7:55
eight seven eight years old and my mom asked my brother now she said "what's three places in the world that y'all
8:00
would like to go and i'm going to make sure that we go." instantly and eagerly i said "china." and she was like "why
8:07
china?" only logical reason i had at that young age that's where everything is made you look on the back of any
8:13
product where it say made in china i said "i'm going to go to the land where everything is made i don't know what it is." i'm like why china got china got
8:19
all the product everything is made in china i want to go there um but it was just that table conversation with that
8:25
just us just making us voice our wants and desires that literally trans coming
8:32
to fruition many many years later um but beijing shanghai and bali indonesia were
8:39
the options i got to choose from like once i got hired um i didn't know anything about bali indonesia so i was
8:46
like i automatically crossed that i'm like i don't know nothing about that uh i originally chose shanghai cuz it's a
8:52
bigger city but the demand for teachers wasn't as high uh as it was she was like
8:57
"yeah you can go to shanghai but you got to play for your plane ticket if you choose beijing we'll pay for
9:03
everything." i was like "well y'all should have said that from the beginning." b think it is
9:09
absolutely yeah because i don't think it's also a cheap place to fly to you know visa
9:16
alone already was like $500 then you got to pay for the flight too no
9:22
crazy what what how was your life before this uh moment of the police coming and
9:30
bringing to you we will go back to to the moment in prison because i'm very curious about that but yeah um what was
9:36
your day today in there like uh in china or before china in china in china man oh
9:43
was uh my work days were sunday saturday sunday monday tuesday i
9:51
was off wednesdays and thursdays so wednesdays and thursdays are my only days off every other day we was working
9:57
um weekends are our busiest days cuz we're not like a actual school school we're a training center that specializes
10:03
in teaching english so when the kids are not in regular school they come to us so
10:09
after school they with us on the weekends they with us you know what i'm saying so that was pretty much uh that's
10:15
pretty much my my schedule i go to work work out or work out then go to work um
10:22
come home shower eat we'll just listen to music watch something smoke vibe out
10:29
and then just do that whole process all over again and our days off we just took those days to just explore beijing i'm
10:34
from atlanta georgia bro i'm pretty much in a whole different world everything's an adventure literally from the smallest
10:39
thing you can think of it is going to be adventure going to the grocery store adventure going to the bank an adventure
10:45
like everything is an adventure because one is atlanta area you know what i'm saying you gonna draw attention
10:50
everywhere you go you know what i mean so it it was it was it was harmonious though i enjoyed it um the food
10:57
authentic chinese food yeah okay fire meeting the other locals the chinese
11:03
people were nice very welcoming very loving i ain't really feel no ill will
11:08
or malicious intense from any of the natives they was all cool um meeting the other foreigners that was a vibe too cuz
11:15
it's like i could have met y'all anywhere but here we are meeting each other in beijing china you know what i'm saying you meet people from all
11:20
different walks of life from africa europe uh south america you know what i'm saying you name it people from all
11:26
over the place australia everywhere um so that was dope too um and then of
11:32
course working with the kids that's the sole purpose of me being out there so i'm like if i don't enjoy the work
11:37
that's going to dictate the entire experience cuz that's that's what i'm there for but you know i was working with the baby so the energy and
11:44
atmosphere was always lit in class i got music playing most of our lessons i turned into competitions so it was just
11:50
nothing but high energy when you when we step foot in the classroom um so that was harmonious too so it's like prior to
11:57
those 14 days china was the best experience i've ever had in my life nice very cool i mean you touched something
12:03
that i also wanted to ask you because when you come from a english-speaking
12:08
country no you you expect that places of the world speak english and probably asian especially china might not be the
12:16
place no where where people are more used like to speak english at all how was how was communicating with locals
12:22
how was also of course racially wise like you're a black man in the middle of
12:27
an asian country you stand out i don't think i'm not talking about being racial
12:33
intentionally but you you stand out for sure like you had situations
12:39
um no i mean you don't like i said you don't draw attention uh now some people everybody's experiences different i say
12:47
like women of color like black women they have more harsher experiences like with folks just walking up to them and
12:53
touching them and grabbing their hair and real real time yeah come just touch
12:58
make sure you poke you and stuff or walk with they phone just take a picture like i didn't have issues like that but i
13:05
know people that did me for i guess they just show respect to me i guess they was scared of me a little bit cuz i college
13:12
football player you know what i'm saying lot so yeah they weren't playing with me like that but it was cool though i i
13:20
enjoyed um the locals and with the language you might catch some locals
13:27
that can speak a bit of english but vast majority of them don't um and i knew just enough mandarin to move and groove
13:34
i'm not going to sit here and have no full in-depth conversation with you nah not happening but i can i knew just
13:40
enough to get around and if push come shove you pull out your phone go to the translation app that's the easiest form
13:47
of you know saying to communicate with the locals and stuff yeah i mean it's a
13:54
big thing that you already knew some basic mandarin to at least to go shopping and thing it makes i think it
13:59
makes a huge difference everywhere i mean i lived in athens where people in
14:04
greece generically speaks very good english but if you drop that few sentences of in of speaking greek
14:11
properly to buy groceries to get a coffee grab a beer whatever wall changes
14:18
because they respect you much much more you're making an effort to talk with people in their in their tongue no and
14:25
that's that's big big a game changer i think whenever you're abroad yeah yeah
14:31
um so yeah maybe let's talk about the 14 days in prison
Biggest Challenges & Surprising Moments
14:38
how was that like i mean you touch it a little bit you were there plastic bowl plastic uh spoon you said uh 14 days no
14:46
communication at all nobody telling you but neither in chinese or or that they
14:52
didn't tell you anything at all like you didn't know any anything okay i don't
14:58
know anything but the first three days i was the only foreigner only english speaker in the sale um so that was just
15:05
a lot of time to truly just reflect we all have we all reflect here and there
15:10
how long we reflect that just depends on the amount of time we got i had a full 72 hours to sit there and just reflect
15:18
on everything my entire life from childhood all the way up to what happened the past 24 hours there's a
15:26
whole lot of time to just sit back and soulsearch and reflect as well as um brainstorm of what i can do once i'm out
15:33
of this position out of this situation um so it was just a lot of time to
15:38
reflect uh and and the salemates they of course they wanted to talk to me i'm the
15:44
only black person in this sale so of course is interested in talking to me i'm just as interested in learning about
15:50
them but english barrier we just we just couldn't communicate there was only one
15:55
person in sl that i was able to communicate with and me and him couldn't even communicate verbally like we had to
16:01
communicate just through body gestures and minding things out acting things out but i learned so much about this man um
16:09
just from gibson that small little bit of communication that we was able to have and i was he was the only person i
16:15
was able to do this with everybody else in i couldn't do it with but him i don't know it's like me and him knew each
16:21
other in the past life or something it was crazy um but he told me he's like "yeah i'm your chinese brother your
16:26
chinese big brother." he was like a couple years older than me he had kids and stuff um like i was able to learn
16:32
all of this without even being able to talk to him verbally so it was powerful um and then on day four i moved to a new
16:40
sale and in that new sale i'm amongst other foreigners at least three of them one is a chinese american from
16:46
california who speaks mandarin and english the other one is a brazilian from brazil he's fluent in both mandarin
16:53
and english and the third one was a russian dude from russia all he does all he spoke was russian and mandarin so i
16:58
couldn't communicate with him but through the other two i can use them to translate and now i can i can talk to
17:05
everybody in the cell now cuz i'm both speak mandarin as well so now it's like
17:10
it's hard it's the the energy shifts cuz like okay it's dark it's gloomy it's
17:16
depressing just cuz we ain't got nobody to talk to we just left to our own devices to try to entertain ourselves
17:21
keep our spirits high and try to figure this thing out but now we have camaraderie misery loves company you
17:29
know what i'm saying i ain't alone no more and now i got communicate learn how the jail operates now i'm learning
17:34
everything i'm learning how thing works um and most interesting enough everybody
17:40
knows all of their information to the fullest detail what their specific charges are how many days they're
17:46
sentenced the whole nine me on the other hand nothing was explained to me but everybody else knows all their
17:52
information to the fullest exactly exactly no that's what makes the story what it
17:59
is you know what i'm saying i have no clue it's still a mystery to this day um he was just uh lenny the chinese
18:05
american he was like "they ain't explain to you like they ain't give you the rules of the uh the jail they ain't tell
18:10
you nothing." i was like "nah bro i've just been sitting i'm still sitting i still don't know how long we're gonna be here he's like man that's crazy um but
18:18
it's weird because at the end like i don't know when you said that nobody told you anything and they brought you in and then you drop the dead and you
18:25
don't know i was expecting that the rest of the people with you also were in the same situation that it was the normal
18:30
procedure for for chinese police to do that but now you're saying that you're the only one who didn't have any
18:36
explanation that's that's even more insane you know and like only time i was able to meet
18:42
other foreigners who were pretty much like on the same type of time as me were
18:48
uh folks that was there p like with visa issues if you stay visa or if you was
18:55
here on a tourist visa but you were working and stuff like you just doing something illegal you know what i'm saying that wasn't the purpose of you
19:02
being there those were the main people that was having issues it's like at least not knowing how long they going to
19:07
be there how they situation going to play out um and they don't do a good job of like explaining anything to you uh
19:15
but like i said that's what made the story what it was you saying i had to go through it just like that for
19:20
it to be so conveying and so uh attention grabbing like you ain't going
19:26
to want to put it down cuz it's just it's just like you have you at the edge of your seat like bro what is going to happen next how is this thing going to
19:32
play out like cuz we saying you don't know you just learning as you go mhm
19:38
would they when they take you and they say "okay
19:43
come with us you're leaving." they take you to your apartment you pack a stuff they deport you did you pay a fine did
19:50
they do you pass any court did you pass anything or they just like put you into
19:55
a plane and ciao yeah put me on a plane that was it like if i didn't write this book nobody would have known this entire
20:02
thing had happened to me like it it didn't follow it doesn't follow me anywhere nothing like but i was like no
20:07
criminal record no anything like i mean i don't know in china if there is a criminal record
20:13
china's different um they put they before i got on the plane they was like um you're banned from china for the next
20:19
5 years so you won't be able to come back till uh 2024 this was 2019 but i'm
20:26
like i got a full experience of china already good bad ugly beautiful the whole nine i'm not pressed to come back
20:33
here anytime soon uh uh especially wasn't the best five years afterwards
20:38
either no in china and that's the whole coit and everything so
20:44
but yeah i but i would go back though like looking back on it go back um only
20:51
if opportunity presented itself i wouldn't go out of my way to go back to one you got to apply to visit china you
20:58
got to fill out a whole application give a whole itinerary like it ain't no simple process so they might see my my
21:05
name i might submit my res my application folks scan my name sire start going off
21:11
red deny what
21:18
no i mean it happens i assume like with these visa situations of course they i assume they raise an alert on your on
21:24
your f file or something no it is crazy me crazy and they put you in a plane
21:32
back you're back to us you you are not playing football at that point of time
21:37
and you come back anymore oh that's over with i i completed all four years of my
21:43
eligibility so it's like yeah i can go but football yeah football's over with
21:48
and then obviously you decide okay this story is worth to be told instead of
21:53
like going with the head down and choosing to not explain it to anyone because what you just said it's
22:00
absolutely valid you could have gone back to the usa and say this never happened i borrow it and i never
22:06
remember about it in my life but instead of that you decide to write about it and
22:11
publish it uh how how was that mental process of saying "okay i need to re
22:17
review everything in my mind and see how it happened." um i just knew i wanted to
22:23
do i was going i i had to do something with this story of course my decision- making is the reason why i went through
22:30
it but i felt it was bigger than that i'm like this is something i'm i'm really supposed to be a pioneer with
22:38
this experience um cuz it's been hundreds of people before me and i'm
22:43
pretty sure after me that have gone through the same situation and like you say they just suppress it act like it
22:50
never happened and just go on about their lives me on the other hand i'm like bro i ain't going through that for no reason i'm f to make i'm gonna make
22:56
something shake with it i just don't know what or how um and it wasn't until i was hanging out with one of my good
23:03
friends demarco reddens he was a traditionally published author before we graduated high school in 2014 so he was
23:10
the one that was like hey bro you think about writing a book about the experience i was just like
23:16
that's a good idea i don't even know where to start but that's that's it right there um he even took it further
23:22
he took my phone went to my notes and he left me a little outline and i just started filling in the outline and but
23:27
with me doing that i caught a feel for how i wanted to go about telling the story um at least writing it so i moved
23:33
it from my phone to a google doc so i could type it up took me about four months to get the story written and then
23:41
just spent the next six months just getting it uh ready for publishing um so on april 4th 2019 i was arrested in
23:48
china on april 4th 2020 very next calendar year anniversary date i
23:53
released the very first version of 14 days of beijing um and i did that intentionally and i was ranked number
24:01
one new bestseller in three different genres upon my debut my release i was still on pre-order um and then the
24:07
following days each day i got on there i was number one in a new different genre and then after that snowball effect
24:13
snowball effect so yeah it was it was it was full circle the post moment
24:20
man i i i can imagine like the pressure
24:27
during the times of the days of detention were high like what you were saying at the end no like you are
24:33
sitting there and what you we do now of like meditating or relaxing and reflect
24:39
on your day 30 minutes per day or whatever you do it in 24 hours during quite some
24:47
time until you find someone who you could communicate with which is crazy um
24:53
what was the biggest output that you took from that days like what was the thing that changed your life like from
25:00
that maybe put it like this at the end it was just like so once football came
25:06
to an end for me this last game of my senior year of college i was just like
25:12
"all right chance what's next
25:18
who are we for the longest we've identified it and embodied a football player a student athlete now that is no
25:24
longer the case we got to reidentify ourselves all over again we don't know where we where to start what we going to
25:31
do so it was just from that point on just me having to relearn myself and reidentify myself find my my calling
25:40
applying for all these jobs getting told no applying for the job in china finally
25:45
getting told finally getting a yes after eight months of applying for jobs and getting told no first job 10 years on
25:51
the other side of the world i boom i know i'm like okay we going to go to china after this year in china ain't no telling where we going to be mentally
25:57
spiritually physically like i knew this was going to be a great stepping stone towards finding my purpose towards
26:03
finding my next passion uh all of that you know what i'm saying just finding myself um now did i intend on it going
26:11
the way that it went absolutely not but it took all of that for sure for me to be exactly where we at right now doing
26:17
what we doing right now so it's just the whole purpose the whole journey of finding yourself honestly well at least
26:24
finding myself cool yeah i mean it's not it's not never a single moment of revelation no i mean
26:32
it's not that you find like finally you find the maz i don't know maybe sir there is people that has this kind of
26:37
revelations but i'm also believing that things is like coming in steps no you have an experience you learn from that
26:44
experience and that will bring you to another good or bad decision but whatever like it it brings you to
26:49
something and it kicks you keeps you going and going until you find a place where you feel comfortable that's
26:56
something that i also wanted to ask you like right now you are also like yes you went best-selling author you you had
27:04
your books you start writing more come like more often let's say like this
27:10
you said six books until now and it's a lot
27:15
since 2020 it's like five years it's nearly it's a book per year it's not bad it's very very impressive but at the
27:22
same time you are also as far as i saw and i check you on social media a little bit also like you you're doing content
27:29
you're trying to be like inspire trying to inspire other writers who can be there like becoming a little bit the
27:35
mentor uh idea also behind it no you just say it also help other people publishing their books how does this uh
27:42
transition from becoming a from being an expert first then uh becoming an author
27:47
for explaining your experience and then now helping others to to to do it
27:53
oh just from the success i was 14 days in beijing accumulated like so many
28:00
people countless people asked me questions about writing publishing a
28:06
book you know what i'm saying all all the steps in between and just how to get to that point it surprised me how many
28:12
people actually had aspirations or always dreamed of publishing a book or
28:17
writing a book or you know in a bestseller at some point of their uh some point in time in their life for me
28:24
this was just idea i was given i just took with it and i had a lot of success
28:30
so it's like okay this is something that people actually yearn to do or want to do and i got tools and the sauce to do
28:38
it you know what i'm saying i got some i got some good good game to give out for folks that's really serious about it um
28:44
and i like i said i work with countless people countless countless people um giving the game away for free folks not
28:51
even taking advantage or taking it serious or it's like i guess it was just too accessible that they don't really do
28:57
nothing with it you know what i'm saying it was no value to them just because it was easy for them to acquire so once i turned it into a package and a service
29:05
um for purchase that's when i started finding solid uh clientele and not only
29:12
did i find solid clientele they trusted the process they did everything i told them to do how to do it and not only
29:19
were they able to publish their first books both of their first books went number one new bestseller in multiple
29:24
genres as well so it's like not only was i able to accumulate success for myself i was able to help two different
29:30
completely different individuals do it first author anthony mckenna he's about 30 some years old now uh his book is
29:37
about him growing up in mississippi and how he was molested before the age of 10 and how that affected him and shaped him
29:43
into who he is today powerful story it's titled the fatherless child y'all go tap in with that the other author tanisha
29:50
saddler typical high school drama about two girls liking the same star athlete
29:56
and he messing with both of them but they don't know about it and then they find out at the end and all you know it's typical high school female drama
30:03
but she was 15 years old when she wrote the book 16 when she published it and not only did she go number one in
30:08
multiple genres she held the rank she held the top of the charts for nine straight days 16 years old
30:15
you know what i'm saying so it's like for sure like you know what you're doing bro you know what you're talking about
30:20
for the show she was able to do it oh oh yeah it's up it's up crazy i mean i am
30:28
always surprised when people are able to do these things at young age like it's like
30:34
i don't know i'm still figuring life and i'm 31
30:41
um cool then i would say i would ask you one last question before we jump to to to your life hack or advice as an as an
30:49
expert and it's how did your family take it like your circle of friends took your
30:55
return home in a in a deported plane thing i was at home
31:03
i only told like a select few of people what was going on like i didn't really tell a whole lot of people um so a lot
31:10
of people ain't even know i was in china you know what i'm saying so the fact and the ones that did know when i came back
31:16
they was like "damn bro it's been a year already but that year flew by." they they didn't even notice i'm here i'm
31:22
back in america way earlier than when i'm supposed to be but to their recollection it's been a year so far so
31:28
that just let me know like how just people just caught up in their own lives they got their own thing they doing so they ain't really paying attention too
31:35
much until i'm telling them what happened and then of course i'm telling them what happened oh man even to the to
31:42
this day i love meeting new people and group setting of new people and it's
31:48
time to like everybody share one interesting thing about you oh man i i
31:53
break i steal all the attention in the room so i attention in the room every single time
32:00
every of course you don't meet a lot of people who has been in prison in beijing that's for
32:06
sure like ain't nobody match depends on your circles i don't know
32:11
that part too but even then like i'd have been around people that's you know what i'm saying uh 10 years in prison
32:19
and stuff like that and i tell them my story and they are still they just blown away by my story you know what i'm
32:25
saying they situation far more harsher than what i went through so it's still
32:30
like it's just an like it it caught everybody by storm especially when i
32:36
dropped it and like i released it i just put the uh started running the promo for
32:41
the the book while it was still on pre-order caught everybody by storm because one it's like this man wrote a
32:46
book two this book is about what hold on when all of this take place like what you came out of left field and co had
32:54
just started like this pandemic had just shut everything down at that point in time so everybody was at the house had
33:00
number idle times on their hands it was all divine timing it was beautiful crazy
33:06
no i mean it's also something that i that when you were saying yeah i came back and people of course like when you
33:12
go back home even if it's one year or six months life continued at home you're
33:18
never you you cannot expect that people are waiting for you with candles and and balloons you know like hey people
33:25
continued with their lives and that's what it is like at some point you start also that one thing is that you don't
33:32
need you are not forced at the beginning to explain explain them what happened
33:37
and why you are back oh me but as as soon as you released the book i suppose there was a lot of people telling you
33:44
"oh wow okay now i am understanding why you came back after six months." no
33:49
for sure of course cool um so yeah i would say that we can jump uh to to
Expat Life Hack & Advice
33:58
i don't know if you have any expert life hack advice that you would like to share with my listeners from living abroad and
34:04
that you would say okay that's what i would uh do for i don't know finding resilience adapting into a
34:11
new culture whatever it passes through your mind um when it just comes to traveling uh do your research
34:19
on the country you're traveling to like thorough research really look into it like there's so much there so many
34:26
content creators that travel for a living and create content just giving away free game of different places so
34:32
the information is out there for the taking it's up to you to do your due diligence um and make sure you know what
34:39
it is you getting yourself into before you go there cuz you don't want to you
34:44
don't want no 14 days i dare say tell you that right now so do your research before you go anywhere um
34:55
that for sure just do your research cuz ain't no how long you going to be over there or not so it's like i wouldn't say
35:01
to do all of this if you only going to be there for like a week or something so but yeah just do your research for sure
35:08
even for short traveling right
35:13
cool uh then i would say jeler we jump to these uh mini games that i prepared a
35:20
little bit and hey there everyone i hope you're enjoying this episode so far
35:25
remember that the best way to stay tuned with the latest episodes of the podcast is by clicking on subscribing youtube
35:31
and in your favorite audio platform for extra content and information follow like and comment on our social media and
35:38
visit our website expatexpresspodcast.com thank you for supporting our podcast and let's continue with the episode
35:44
basically i do this normally to explore the cultural differences between the places that you lived and and home and
Cultural Deep Dive & Fun Comparisons
35:52
uh discover a little bit of like i don't know like uh traditions and ways of doing around the world so the first mini
36:00
game that i prepared it's called true or false uh chinese edition that's very easy like i found uh statements about
36:08
chinese culture that uh are either true or are false and then you can tell me if
36:14
you know them and if you believe that they are true or they are false and if you experience anything like it while
36:20
your time in china so first one
36:26
it's that it's rude to tip in restaurants in china oh yeah that's facts yeah yeah they don't and that was
36:34
weird at first it was just it took some well it was odd cuz it's like in america
36:39
you used to tipping like you get frowned upon if you don't really tip for real for real so now it's like well it's like
36:46
hey y'all show so much love so such great service i wanted to at least let me throw you a little something
36:51
something for your efforts but at the same time i don't mind keeping this little extra change in my pocket so like
36:58
either or i'm good with it at the same time but yeah no you don't yeah they don't set chips uhuh
37:05
the red color is associated with bad luck in china the red color
37:11
well that's interesting cuz they flag is red so that's ironic
37:18
yeah absolutely it's false it's false you you get the the the good tip no it's
37:25
actually a symbol of good luck so i suppose there like it's also like that because of that so yeah
37:32
um if someone gives you a business card you should take it with both hands
37:42
see i ain't never received no business card from a native so i'm not even really sure about that one yeah i never
37:49
received a business card i'm not even sure i would assume so though you know
37:54
what i'm saying that just seemed like something they would do take with both hands in theory it's the most polite way
38:00
of throwing so if you are doing business with someone and you want to keep the relation with that person you should do
38:06
it like that yes talking about uh guest or signs of
38:13
respect uh one of the most common things to show respect to guest is serving tea
38:21
for sure tea out there boy i swear hey lord a for
38:26
sure i i'll probably i'll say true i'll say true absolutely i think the tea
38:32
culture is very high no there are like is that's something that you do daily nearly oh yeah oh yeah it's like
38:41
tradition uh we already talk about red color but now i will switch to white color uh
38:48
white color is associated with happiness and celebrations in chinese culture
38:59
uh i'mma probably say false i just i don't
39:04
recall seeing too many things that were white in color i i think of white i
39:11
think of japan absolutely it's false it's actually traditionally mowing and funerals uh oh
39:20
we just i mean it shocks us normally because we we go to to the our weddings
39:26
knowing what the the bribes and then for them that wouldn't be a normal thing to
39:32
do because uh it's it's when you how you go dressed to funerals which we normally go fully on black clothes exactly
39:42
uh well i have couple two more it's customary to refuse a gift at least once
39:48
before accepting it
39:56
yeah i don't know anytime i was offered offered a gift i took it when i was out there cuz i just felt like it was just
40:02
y'all trying to show love so like you know what i ain't trying to deny it or nothing like you give it love hey i'm
40:08
receiving it let's do it theoretically you should do it once like
40:13
"oh no thank you and then they need to offer it again and then you take it and it's a matter of like i i'm not here for
40:19
your presence only i'm here for your company but okay i don't know if it's really applied like
40:25
this if any of the listeners is in china they can put it in the comments right um
40:32
maybe one you know when dining in a group it's polite to start eating as
40:37
soon as the food is served or you need to wait for everyone to have their food
40:46
i think folks dive straight in as soon as i think folks i think folks will dive
40:51
straight in um anytime we was in a group setting we ate that's how well i guess
40:59
it just depends on who you with depend you with um some folks probably might wait for you to get your food but if
41:06
they waiting for you to get your food i feel like that's a outside thing a foreigner thing okay i feel like them
41:12
they just sit down and go fed even when we was in beijing jail six in the cell
41:18
they disperse the food they first come first serve so like whoever in line they already eating by
41:24
the time you saying the last person get their food so yeah it's more about the host normally it
41:31
says that it's customary to wait until the host has its food so the host needs to start of course in prison that
41:38
doesn't work no because host is not eating with you so
41:44
yeah cool um did you remember any
41:50
random thing that it shocked you like culturally wise you weren't expecting and someone came to you and said "oh
41:56
this is not done like this." or did you have any moment like this in in china uh yeah the hygiene i i wasn't i didn't
42:05
know the hygiene was as bad as it was
42:10
yeah that was that's what the most surprising thing to me or at least the most memorable most thing that stood out
42:17
the most is your hygiene folks don't wash their hands like that you know what i'm saying we big on washing america um
42:24
but out there no that's not the case at all like you
42:30
could be in a restaurant and you can see somebody from the kitchen come into the bathroom use the bathroom and they walk
42:36
clean out they straight out bathroom ain't wash their hands nothing and you know they just came back from the
42:42
kitchen so yeah yeah it's different yeah
42:47
crazy very not passing the standards no probably
42:53
in the us um cool uh so the next mini
42:58
game that i prepared uh actually it's called food roulette and i prepared and
43:05
search for beijing street food and i will name you street food from beijing
43:11
and china in general and you can try tell me if you try it or not and if you
43:16
prefer the one version one thing or the next one so it's a little bit of like
43:23
um if you haven't tried you just say it and we take the one that you tried but
43:29
you said that you like chinese food so i hope you tried most of it
43:34
uh so the first thing that i have is uh tuan which is like this cure grilled
43:40
meat uh with cumin and and chili on top okay uh know what you talking about but
43:49
i didn't really eat a whole lot of meat when i was in china i don't know what talking about i was like i don't really
43:54
trust the meat i ain't going to trust me uh i was mainly vegetarian while i was out there yeah i ate a lot of noodles
44:02
rice vegetables fruit tofu stuff like that cool so we will skip that one and
44:09
then i will try to bring the non-meat ones that i have
44:14
uh do you know baoi yeah yeah the
44:24
what hit 7-eleven like every morning what hey let me get two of them the uh the
44:30
spanish mushroom boy that y'all was so fire man you i'm getting flashbacks now
44:35
think about it for sure yeah yeah them things fire
44:41
jan bing you know like the craps uh [ __ ] the chinese craps uh
44:48
they are filled with egg and onion most of the times i'm not i'm not familiar
44:54
with that i think one of the things that it's very common in the street is this uh tangulu
45:01
uh the skewers made of uh fruit uh with uh pawthorn berries and strawberries and
45:09
so on and like i saw it quite a lot okay yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i ain't never had one of those but i know what
45:15
you're talking about did you dry scorpions no um oh no
45:22
did you sew scorpions yeah i i seen the scorpions and the spiders and the
45:28
grasshoppers and nah i ain't partic none of that
45:33
i have one here also that it's called doa which is silken tofu with sweet
45:41
syrup and savory toppings i don't know if you ever tried that before i might have had that before
45:49
i might have had that before wow next one i don't even know how to
45:54
pronounce it but you already said noodles so i will try zan
46:00
it's like with soybean paste and condiments noodles like i don't know if you heard of that
46:07
sound like uh is it cold or hot cuz they do sometimes they got cold soup
46:15
cold soup is fire like you would think cold soup be good it's fire with noodles
46:20
and zucchini and man whatever the broth is they be man that broth be crazy the
46:25
broth always sets it off broth always sets the noodles off for sure
46:31
cool i mean talking about broth but now hot and probably because of the spicy how much how much times did you try hot
46:39
pots in beijing like eating hot pot every day
46:44
what i have some colleagues they that's what they love hot pot we always do
46:51
cool do you know cow gun it's the dry tofu skin
46:59
i think i had it before i think i had it before i think i have in the kitchen to be honest i
47:08
uh cool uh then i will have the last one which is called yao
47:14
it's deep fried dough sticks uh with soy milk oh man no
47:22
i think we know it and in spain it's rather famous because it's the version of churros the chinese version of
47:28
churros so it's very similar but they they drink it with the soy milk with it
47:34
we put sugar on top of it to make it even more unhealthy
47:39
yeah i just ain't never had it i didn't really buy a lot of sweets and stuff like that cuz the price of sweets you
47:45
can get a whole meal so i'm like i don't know if they did that just to turn people off from buying all the sugary
47:51
stuff like that cuz i'm like bro you can buy a candy bar i'm talking about you
47:56
can eat a whole meal for that same price i'mma get the meal forget the you know what i'm saying so i i ain't really well
48:04
i was out there either do you remember any dish that you missed
48:10
in these years being in the us that you say "fuck i would love to have this at home." malaton it's similar to hot pot
48:18
but you select all the ingredients you want different meats they got vegetables
48:24
you choose everything you want and then they boil it up for you um and then
48:29
bring it out into like a soup and it's this sauce that they make on the side for you to dip it in oh my goodness
48:38
that sauce was so fire had this nice little sense of heat and
48:45
spiciness to it that wasn't too overbearing um but it it definitely had a kick to it it's like the more you ate
48:51
it it didn't intensify but it's like the flavor just got stronger so it's like
48:58
it's not getting spicier but the flavor is enhancing as the more that you eat it
49:03
i tried my best to try to to to ask him like "bro what is in this sauce how do y'all make this sauce?" i could not i
49:09
could never figure it out malone oh my goodness yeah that that was fire what i
49:15
missed that for sure i mean it's spicy food no like it's hot
49:20
hot like it's next level you need to be stomach ready for for eating yeah it
49:26
depends on your spice tolerance for sure yeah for sure if you ain't got a hot spice tolerance then yeah you like spicy
49:33
food your place
49:38
cool uh so with that i will jump to the audience q&a because i have three
Audience Q&A
49:43
questions from the audience that uh they sent for for you uh the first one comes
49:51
from sara theal or that's the high the mention name uh how do you mentally
49:58
prepare for unexpected challenges uh or how do you recommend to mentally prepare for expected challenges abroad
50:06
um being prepared being prepared um for expected
50:13
challenges that means you already know what to what you're getting yourself into so just proper prep proper
50:20
preparation prevents poor performance so long as you prepare you going to be all right
50:27
i have one question from b ben light three uh what advice do you more often
50:35
say to firsttime authors that want to start for sure um
50:41
depends on what type of book you want to write whether it's fiction or non-fiction that's going to dictate how
50:48
you start if it's non-fiction that jump easy bro you telling a true story create
50:54
an outline you create an outline from the be where you want the story to begin and just
51:00
list out uh the events that happened in chronological order now you have a whole
51:06
blueprint on how to write this story now you just go underneath each bullet and just expand on it tell what happened
51:11
underneath so opening scene we're in atlanta georgia
51:18
in 2014 january the 12th you know what i'm saying it's 6:00 in the afternoon it's
51:26
cold all right what all h happened on that day boom all right now you go down
51:32
to the next book what took place right after that now you just started filling it in that's it you know what i'm saying just tell the story what happened from
51:38
start to finish all right now but fictional writers that's going to be a
51:44
little bit more challenging because you have to create everything from you know what i'm saying you got to create the
51:49
setting you have to create the characters develop the characters and it's going to be a whole lot more of a workload but once you the biggest thing
51:56
is just creating the setting and the characters once you have all of that now
52:01
you can start brainstorming you know what i'm saying what is this story about what is the purpose uh and you know what
52:08
i'm saying just ration it out hash it out just like that and then of course you still going to create your outline to follow and to guide the biggest
52:16
phases of the writing and publishing process is actually the writing process
52:21
itself that takes the longest and the editing process getting it perfected written and perfected that's very uh
52:30
uh tedious cuz of course you want it perfect um so that's going to be a process and marketing on the back end
52:38
you've already done pub written the book you done published it now you got to market it if you don't tell nobody then
52:44
you know what i'm saying what was the point now if this is something you just want to cross off your bucket list for sure i understand that but if it's
52:50
something that you really want to push you want to get a reaction you got to you got to market it and that's not
52:56
going to be cheap and it's you know what i'm saying you got to continue to do it is 5 years later and i am still
53:01
promoting 14 days beijing like you dropped yesterday i'm still talking about this book for sure you got to keep
53:07
pushing it yeah i mean it's it's like everything no in that in that sense like
53:13
i have a podcast you have books like you create something and the work that it's promoting that thing probably it's more
53:20
than or not but at some point it is sometimes more important what you do
53:27
afterwards with it no like okay it's out there how do you get it to the world how
53:33
do you get know people to know about you and that's it's not easy and especially nowadays like everyone has their own
53:40
medias and putting yourself in the market it's crazy complex it's it's
53:46
difficult yeah cool i have the last one from salette 85
53:53
uh who is asking what's the most surprising that you learned about yourself during your detention time
54:00
um
54:07
i guess how resilient i am for real
54:15
yeah we all experience hardships adversity um
54:21
and adversity introduces a man to himself or a woman to herself uh
54:27
that was a alltime low i knew it i'm like "ain't nothing going to be worse than this nothing's going to
54:33
be worse than this." and i was already under i already had the mindset that bro i'm going to be good when it's all said and done
54:40
cool it's day one i'm like i'm going to be good when it's all said i don't know how it's going to play out but i'm all i'm have to endure but i know i'm going
54:47
to be good for sure it's difficult also because like i don't
54:53
know like i think a lot of of us probably including myself the first day i would be like man i'm in the low but i
55:02
don't know how to get out of this i'm a little bit more harsh i suppose on
55:08
myself when bad decisions are taken but yeah cool cool it's it's good to hear
55:14
refreshing at least that someone is able to to bring
55:19
back the fight from day one at school um yeah it has been an incredible
55:25
conversation but i think like just looking at the time a little bit i would love to give you the the option to to
55:34
talk a bit more about your the services that you're offering what are you doing with the with the publications the books
Guest Promotion
55:41
itself where the where can people find you can get in contact with you and and and also work with you if there is any
55:48
aspiring authors out there who are listening yeah man yeah y'all could the best search engine we got google google
55:57
kj jackson everything you need will pop up for my social media accounts other interviews i've done website books the
56:04
whole nine um just google me any aspiring officers out there you can get in touch with me through my website
56:11
where i have all my packages and services available i'm also in working
56:16
on a course currently 14-day course and a 14week course you know what i'm saying 14-day course it'll be pretty much a
56:23
course that you can just do you can be able to become a published author a bestselling published author on your own
56:30
in 14 days with the 14week course if you want me to be a little bit more hands-on with the process that's when that
56:36
package comes in into play um but i'm working on those currently so y'all tap
56:41
in with me on that um be sure to follow me on all my social media social media accounts instagram is the most
56:49
consistent uh app that i'm on for any daily inspiration wisdom um yeah man
56:56
y'all tap in with me cool i mean as always to all listeners you know that
57:01
the social media the website every link would be in the description of the episode so if you are lazy to google
57:09
things uh just go to the description of the episode and and grab the link from there
57:16
uh before we close up uh do you have any funny unexpected story that you had from
Funny Story & Wrap-up
57:23
your time in virginia besides the fact of being 14 days in prison that you say okay that was the last the last funny
57:30
story that you want to share with the audience um a funny story uh let me see
57:38
unexpected doesn't need to be funny but unexpected okay um
57:46
oh yeah uh so when we was going through
57:52
like training and stuff so like i got i came in i went to china on october 10th
57:57
2018 i didn't show up alone like i flew out to china by myself but once i got
58:03
there i realized that's when i saw okay i'm a part of like this recruiting group like this is all of us that got hired
58:08
around the same time so they f to put us all through training at the same time it's about like 30 of us um we was they
58:17
took us to the hospital to do physicals and stuff like that and when i tell you
58:23
that was different i different i'm talking about none how
58:28
are we in the hospital we got doctors and nurses doing all this stuff drawing blood the whole nine ain't nobody got no
58:34
blood can you imagine your nurse just strapped all this stuff to your arm trying to draw blood with her bare fingers
58:45
scary i don't know we was just like "what what is going on this stuff is different." and then
58:53
another it's crazy like around the time i got locked up i was the one that
58:59
popped it off it's like folks just started going missing left and right out of our group i got locked up first and
59:05
then one of our other uh colleagues got arrested shortly after me he went missing um one of our colleagues passed
59:12
away dur like just due that just straight health complication stuff um so
59:17
it was just it got real spooky and wicked so it was like that
59:24
uh uh the year yeah it got real real wicked um and then co popped off but i
59:32
came back to america before then so i'm like i can't even imagine what china was like uh during co especially be locked
59:38
up during co oh no so yeah there's some
59:44
stuff that we went through oh man what a crazy story uh
59:52
thank you chancellor again like uh it has been really really a good pleasure to talk to you to hear the story not
59:59
only from the book and uh from uh getting the first pages of your book and
1:00:06
inspiration and of course i listen to other interviews but uh having it in first person it it was really a pleasure
1:00:11
and yeah the show cool um and yeah to all listeners again
1:00:19
thank you for for joining the episode uh make sure to check uh chancellor's books connect with him check the website and
1:00:26
all the links as always in the description but also don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and to follow
1:00:32
us in social media so until the next time keep exploring stay curious and see you in the next episode of expert
1:00:38
experts