Geoff Dyer, author of The Contest of the Century: The New Era of Competition with China—and How America Can Win, covers U.S. foreign policy for the Financial Times in Washington, D.C.; previously he was the Times’ bureau chief in China and Brazil. Before talking about the changing dynamics between China and the U.S., he talked in the Zócalo green room about what it’s like to be one of two contemporary British writers named Geoff Dyer.
What’s your favorite plant or flower?
Angelicas would be my favorite flower.
What keeps you up at night?
I have a 2-year-old son, so that’s a very easy question to answer.
What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
Something outdoors, something with fresh air, something in the sun. So, no real ideas about a job, just ideas about where I’d like to be, I guess. Maybe a gardener. That would do the trick.
What dish is a must-eat for visitors to Beijing?
Not Peking duck, which is a very overrated dish, but something like hong shao rou, a braised pork dish, which is fantastically tasty, and which I happened to have last night in San Francisco, so maybe that’s why it’s on my mind.
Where do you go to be alone?
I love to go to cafes and sit on my own and read, and I like to go to the cinema on my own, go walking on my own. There are lots of places you can go on your own and not actually be on your own. One of the things I like about America is that you can go to nice restaurants and have dinner at the bar alone, which is not something you can do in Europe.
How are you different from who you were 10 years ago?
My life is totally different. I’m very happily married, I have a wonderful kid, I have a much more complete and full life, even though I have less adventures than I had when I was a 30-something trolling around the world on my own. I have a much more interesting and loved life now.
What’s the ugliest piece of furniture you own?
Most of my ugly bits of furniture have been thrown out by my wife in the last few years. I’m trying to think if I managed to hold on to any of them. I have a really tacky table that I bought in Brazil, that has very garish colored tiles on it, that I thought was very kind of cool, in a bawdy kind of way, when I bought it 10 years ago, and which we still have—and which I think is gathering dust now in the corner of our basement.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
I guess it depends just how long a night it’s been. Something really kind of poppy, like George Michael’s “Freedom” or something like that.
What do you love to hate?
I like to hate on other bad drivers. I like to let off steam by shouting at other people in the car. You can say things in pretty much any other situation in life that would probably land you in jail, but in your car you can say them and scream them and usually pretty much get away with it.
How can you tell when people think you’re the other Geoff Dyer?
Oh, I have so many other Geoff Dyer stories! I’ve never met him, but I once spoke to him on the phone. He called me up and asked if I’d received a check for £30 from the BBC that was supposed to be for him. His first novel was about a bunch of 20-somethings living in South London. I was living in South London and knew the places he was writing about. It occurred to me that this man was making a success writing in my name—and he was even writing my own life.
What’s the best advice you have for journalists before they start writing a book?
Don’t have a baby. That’s the simplest one. But the other is, it’s a lot longer and bigger than you think.