WHAT:"At the Edge of Empire: a Family's Reckoning with China" ONLINE: Author Edward Wong of the New York Times, in conversation with Ching-Ching Ni

WHEN: Aug. 14, 2024, Wednesday, 8:00-9:00 PM Beijing Time

ABOUT THE EVENT: This epic family memoir by New York Times diplomatic correspondent Edward Wong is getting great reviews. Many of us who knew the author in Beijing may not have known that the son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC grew up with family secrets. His father toiled in Chinese restaurants and rarely spoke of his native land or his years in the People's Liberation Army under Mao. Yook Kearn Wong came of age during the Japanese occupation in World War II and the Communist revolution, when he fell under the spell of Mao's promise of a powerful China. His astonishing journey as a soldier took him from Manchuria during the Korean War to Xinjiang on the Central Asian frontier. In 1962, disillusioned with the Communist Party, he made plans for a desperate escape to Hong Kong.

When Edward became the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, he investigated his father's mysterious past while assessing for himself the dream of a resurgent China. He met the citizens driving the nation's astounding economic boom and global expansion and followed them as they grappled with the leadership's increasing focus on nationalism and ideology. Following in his father's footsteps, he witnessed social and political developments in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. And he had an insider's view of the world's two superpowers meeting at a perilous crossroads. Amazon.com calls this book "ground-breaking" and "essential for understanding China today."

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times and author of At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China, published by Viking Books in June 2024. He has reported for the Times for nearly 25 years, working for 13 of those as a correspondent and bureau chief from China and Iraq. Edward was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University and U.C. Berkeley. He was a recent fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington and at the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School. Edward is a recipient of the Livingston Prize for his war correspondence from Iraq and his team was in the running for a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the war.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Ching-Ching Ni is editor-in-chief of the New York Times Chinese-language website. She began her career in China as Shanghai bureau chief and Beijing correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. She branched briefly into academia, serving as associate dean and professor at the journalism school at Shantou University.

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