Dai Ling, an American graduate of Boston University, has been closely tied to China through Tao Te Ching. More than a decade ago, Dai came to Qingdao with an English version of Tao Te Ching and began to work as a foreign teacher in a university there. A few years later, he quit his job and retreated to a small house deep in the mountains to concentrate on translating his own version of Tao Te Ching.