A backseat driver has a front-row seat on car madness

I have the best time in the car when I'm with my Chinese in-laws. I just sit back, close my eyes and smile. Like most Westerners, whatever I lack in Chinese language, guanxi (connections), cultural awareness and use of chopsticks, I compensate for with my driving skills.

It's so much fun to watch my father-in-law, a respectable Chinese civil servant in his late 50s, constantly getting lost and causing near accidents, while my mother-in-law, who has a license but has never driven a day in her life, keeps shouting instructions from the back seat.

There's usually one of his younger brothers in the car, who allegedly knows how to drive, but lacking a license, gives his advice in a lower voice.