"He was a gentleman with red whiskers who always went first through a doorway."

Also--to follow up on my question, "Why write in China, if not about China?" Everyone here is always saying, 'Oh, by living in China you're learning so much'--First of all, that's true in the way in which it was meant, but second of all, it's true in the opposite way. Living here affords me time to not work which affords me time to teach myself. The taking on of this immense task has me TEACHING myself in a totally productive way, re-reading books that "work" in a way I've never read books before. No longer reading for sentences (as I did in my teens when learning to write) or for sociological truths (freshman, sophomore) or for author's intentions and grand human truths (junior, senior). I am now reading to steal mechanics: How did they transition, pass time, why did I care what happened next? How did they "get in" a character?

"Ford Madox Ford writes wonderfully about getting a character up and running - what he calls "getting a character in". Ford and his friend Joseph Conrad loved a sentence from a Guy de Maupassant story: "He was a gentleman with red whiskers who always went first through a doorway." Ford comments: "that gentleman is so sufficiently got in that you need no more of him to understand how he will act. He has been 'got in' and can get to work at once." -- James Wood writing something something something

In journalism I have learned to spot "getting a character in" as Leiby's "writing with muscle." I think I need to re-attack the novel with 'muscle.' Anyway, I'm learning a lot by myself right now. And it has nothing to do with China.