Seeing this land's beauty through Canadian eyes

Working on a Hollywood film set was nowhere near glamorous as I had imagined it to be. The production was a major blockbuster partly shot in Shanghai and a small old town in Zhejiang province.

My job as the Chinese assistant to the action director involved taking his wife to the Yu Garden for sightseeing and later the stunt team shopping for fake Rolex watches and Calloway golf clubs. So many fake golf clubs were bought that the production office issued a memo limiting one set for each crew member to take home on the chartered jet.

Paul, the Canadian assistant to the action director, dutifully followed us around. In his early 30s, his beard and heavy build gave him a mature look when he was quiet. However, most of the time he was loud, wearing a big smile, high-fiving around and always ready to get coffee for everyone.