This is a story about the current generation of Chinese in China developing into a country in such a break neck speed that the people and the government can’t seem to adjust fast enough to keep up with it, especially after the cultural revolution that overthrew all the traditional faiths (Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and etc.) under the single-party rule (semi-dictatorship) for almost 70 years.

The book consists of three parts: Fortune, Truth and Faith.

Fortune:
Gong Haiyan’s creating the Jiayuan.com, the biggest matchmaking site on earth.
Li Yang’s Crazy English Institute.
God of Gamblers, Siu Yun-ping, in Macau – owed gambling debts and was contracted triads to hit.
Wealth brought the tourists to the West.

Truth:
– The censorship is everywhere, including this website blocked in China.
Hu Shuli’s Caijin story.
– Text message about what to censored.
– Lin Zhengyi’s (later changed to Yifei) defection to China from Taiwan in 1979. I had not heard of the story until reading this book. His story was developed throughout the book including his travel to US to World Bank and return to Bejing.
– Dissident Liu Xiaobo’s story including his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
The author reported several stories around Ai Wei Wei, whose story I found to be fascinating.
– Han Han – a car racer and a blogger and Crazy English’s teacher.
– Ai WEiwei’s story.
– Chen Guangcheng: As a blind lawyer, he beats the odds of becoming a lawyer, then a civil right advocates, then his eventual departure from China due to persecution.

Faith:
– The spiritual void created by Communist Party’s domination. Now Confucianism is being advocated.
– Hardware City’s “passing by” highlights the lack of moral standard when Little Yueyue was left to die after being hit by a van.

My key takeaways:
– Interesting stories of the people. The author, like a good New Yorker reporters, is good at telling stories.
– I never thought about the government control can be a hindrance to being creative in arts and technology. Maybe it’ll motivate the government to easy up on censorship.
– This book might serve as a good reminder to the Westerners that China’s Miracle is really not a miracle but so much pain being endured in censorship, and population control, forceful urban control and squashing of dissidents. At some point, the pain may become unbearable and things will change. Probably within 10 years, give or take.

Before reading this book, Regis came across to me as a normal talk show host who would make a big deal out of trivial events to fill the time and did it in such a dramatic way. After reading this, I came to appreciate his true talents that he’s always doubtful of himself throughout his career.

Like a good talk show host, he introduces in this books lots of people I’m not familiar with like:
1. Jack Paar: a big-time Tonight Show host before Johnny Carson who he tries to emulate and had a close relationship with until Paar’s death. I had to watch some old Youtube videos to see what’s he like.
2. Joey Bishop: a talk show host who Regis was his sidekick in the Joey Bishop show, competing with Johnny Carson on ABC network. Regis appeared to be not too crazy about Joey because Joey forced him to pretend quitting/walking out the show to get a jump on the rating. But Regis was appreciate of his giving him a break. He looked like a boy in those days.
3. John Severino: a revengeful boss who gave him a middle finger early in Regis’ career and later offered him the Live with Regis talk show in New York after he defected to ABC.

Some facts that I learned from this book:
1. Regis started the red carpet show on Oscar night before anyone else.
2. How accurate this astrologist, Sydney Omarr, predicted his success in 20 years which turned out to be true when he got his gig New York talk show more than 25 years ago.
3. Jack Nicolson is such a private person and has never been interviewed except for this one time he phoned Regis to invite him to a Lakers game.
4. George Steinbrenner’s superstition that caused him a lot of bladder pain when he had to stay while the Yankees went into over time and won the game. Funny story.
5. Dean Martin is someone he literally worshiped and admired as someone with so much talent and grace, working with Jerry Lewis. Dean’s spontaneity and great voice were still legendary. His last encounter with him in a Beverly Hill restaurant is something of a sad ending and yet he reminisced.
6. Regis had a lot of self doubt in the beginning of his career because his perception of “lack of talents” after seeing Steve Allen’s setting the high bar.
7. Regis has a strong tie with his alma mater, Notre Dame, which seemed to bring him lots of consolation during his lull.
8. Steven Spielberg was a young man who choked when interviewed by Regis.
9. Howard Stern was such a gentle soul when you live next to him and have a share the same elevator like Regis did.

At the end of each chapter, there are a couple of paragraphs on “what he took away from it all.” They are very true and sometimes funny. A couple of quotes here:
a. “To specifically label what you do best is to unfairly limit what you can do best.” “Just make sure you know what you absolutely cannot do. And don’t be afraid to admit it.”
b. Go ahead and take a chance on doing surprising things at work (as I did in the piggy bank story). Attention will be paid.” “There is no such a thing as a lowly job when you start in a particular business where you’ve always dreamed of succeeding.”
c. “Great things can happen much later than you might have hoped. But even then, great things are great – and always worth appreciating – so don’t give up.”
d. “Never stop saying thank you to the people who’ve made the biggest differences in your life. No matter how much it embarrassed them.”
e. “Learn what you can from old mistakes, but don’t dwell on them too long or you may miss out on truly great opportunities.”
f. “Loyalty to others tends to ensure that your loyalty will always be returned in kind.” “Know how to take a ribbing, especially from people who obviously care about you – as well as those who do it for a living and mean you no harm. (Don Rickles). It’s really a compliment that they though enough of you to talk about you in the first place.”
g. “In business, think first with your head, and soon enough your heart will follow the same path.”
h. “When difficult times arise, don’t lose sight of how far you’ve already come and of all the better times that have helped sustain you along the way.” “After a terrible setback, the true test is how you face the next day: Get up, show up and I promise you you’ll soon begin to cheer up.”
i. “Get yourself near people who exude great enthusiasm and watch how it rubs off on you.”
j. If you approach any task with perfection as your goal, it will always bring you that much closer to truly achieving it.”
k. “To become big, you cannot be afraid to play big – and to dream even bigger.” “Always keep self-doubt to yourself – as best you can. And never buy into it for very long.”
l. “The bigger you build your dreams, the more likely you are to take heat from detractors. Forget about the heat and just keep building.”
m. “Helping others will, more often than not, help yourself find a greater sense of fulfillment.” (Charles Grodin).
n. “Those who’ve shared the same health scares as you and eagerly comfort you along the way are the realest friend you can find.” (David Letterman)
o. If you are lucky enough to find the right one, you’ll know it. Then just hang on for dear life. Dearer life, really.” (Joy Philbin)

I really enjoyed this memoir. Regis is truly an icon who shared his life on live TV and shared his life lessons in this book. He’s a generous man.