NOTE: If you haven’t read the book and are allergic to spoilers, please be aware that the interesting surprises of Scott’s story are discussed in this podcast.
Scott Tong is a reporter for American Public Media’s Marketplace, and from 2006 to 2010, he helped found and run the radio program’s Shanghai bureau. During that time, he also experienced a lot of culture shock — his Chinese-American upbringing in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Taiwan didn’t prepare him for mainland China as much as he had expected, and while in Shanghai, he uncovered some surprising truths about his family, which has roots in nearby Jiangsu Province.
A Village With My Name: A Family History of China's Opening to the World is Scott’s deeply personal reporting and reflection on what he learned about his family, and China’s history, by visiting distant relatives in a forlorn part of Jiangsu Province. It is a highly engaging, eye-opening story that sheds light on how Chinese people engage with their past — and their present.
Recommendations:
Jeremy: McKay Books, a huge used books store in Nashville, Tennessee. And Congo Cables: The Cold War in Africa—From Eisenhower to Kennedy, by Madeleine Kalb.
Scott: Resigned Activism: Living With Pollution in Rural China, by Anna Lora-Wainwright. And Rough Translation, an NPR podcast about how foreigners see America.
Kaiser: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History, by Kurt Andersen.
Does Beijing Really Want Trump?
The Swifts of Beijing, with Terry Townshend of Birding Beijing
Bonus: A Free-Range Father in a Tiger Mom World — Reflections on Chinese and American Education
China's Response to U.S. Semiconductor Export Controls, with Paul Triolo and Kevin Xu
Eric Olander on China in the Global South
A Letter from Beijing
Anthony Tao: The Poetry and Soul of Beijing
Sinica Unscripted: Wang Zichen of CCG with a Third Plenum Preview and more
Improbable Diplomats: Historian Pete Millwood on how Scientific and Cultural Exchange Remade U.S.-China Relations
Adam Tooze on the U.S., China, the Energy Transition — and Saying the Unsayable
An Ecological History of Modern China, with Stevan Harrell — Part 2
An Ecological History of Modern China, with Stevan Harrell — Part 1
Peter Hessler on his new book, "Other Rivers: A Chinese Education"
Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Sino-American Rivalry
Jonathan Chatwin on Deng Xiaoping's 1992 Southern Tour
Ed Lanfranco: from Hoarder to Historian
Jay Kuo on Beijing's Gay 90s
The Struggle for Taiwan: Sulmaan Wasif Khan of Tufts University on his new book
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jane Perlez on her new podcast series, Face-Off
Political Scientist Iza Ding on Authoritarianism, Legitimacy, and "Resilience"
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free