Q&A: Colin Legerton

A couple of times people asked us if we were spies, which doesn't make sense and wasn't terribly worrisome. But a couple of times we ran into situations where we were in areas we shouldn't have been because some of the minority areas are really sensitive in China. The government is worried about what's going to happen in these areas, or what's going to happen if foreigners see the conditions in these areas. So a couple of times, we got detained or questioned a little bit.

Q: What were those conditions?

A: In a different time in China, I even got arrested briefly because we were in a countryside area that was incredibly poor. It was a region that was prone to earthquakes. And they had one big earthquake in the late '90s. And this area was too poor; people couldn't really afford houses. They built houses for them that looked like they were 100 years old. They were in horrible condition.

That's where we got picked up because foreigners weren't allowed to be there. And in some of the border regions of China, there are still regions where foreigners technically aren't allowed to go. It's just hard to find out where they are. Usually, it's if it's a sensitive area where they think there might be separatist activity.

Q: How did you get the people you spoke with to open up to you?

A: What helps us a lot were a lot of these areas were villages and towns. They hadn't really seen foreigners so they were really interested to see us. As soon as we walked into town, everyone would stop and was talking about us.

Then, when we could go up to them and speak to them in Chinese or Uyghur or Korean, they realized they could communicate with us. The whole idea of the book was to find out about these people.

We were really interested in them. Everybody has a story to tell, and if somebody comes up to you, and they speak your language and are interested in your story, they've got a lot to say. Some people opened up a lot more than we expected.