Jan Wong
Author of Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now
About the Author
Jan Wong is a prize-winning journalist, bestselling author, and professor of journalism at St. Thomas University. A third-generation Canadian, she is the eldest daughter of a prominent Montreal restaurateur.
Image credit: Jan Wong [credit: Kelly Baker]
Series
Works by Jan Wong
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Wong, Jan
- Birthdate
- 1952-08-15
- Gender
- female
- Education
- McGill University
Beijing University
Columbia University - Occupations
- journalist
columnist
author - Awards and honors
- New England Women’s Press Association Newswoman of the Year Award
National Newspaper Award (Canada)
Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Silver Medal
George Polk Award - Short biography
Jan Wong was the much-acclaimed Beijing correspondent for The Globe and Mail from 1988 to 1994. She is a graduate of McGill University, Beijing University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is the recipient of a (US) George Polk Award, the New England Women’s Press Association Newswoman of the Year Award, the (Canadian) National Newspaper Award and a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Silver Medal, among other honours for her reporting. Wong has also written for The New York Times, The Gazette in Montreal, The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal.- Nationality
- Canada
- Birthplace
- Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Places of residence
- Montréal, Québec, Canada
Beijing, China
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Associated Place (for map)
- Canada
Members
Reviews
Part confessional memoir and part travel book, Jan Wong revisits the sins of her past self, and in the process discovers a China much changed from the one she knew from decades ago. A Canadian of Chinese ancestry, Wong's youthful exploration of communist philosophy had led her to seek out the Maoist application of it first hand, being one of only a few Westerners allowed into China at the time. There, through what she later recognises as her own blind fanaticism, she tattles on a fellow show more student, reporting them for subversive activity. Over thirty years later, now disabused of her earlier zealotry, Wong returns to find out what happened to this individual, and in the process discovers a China much changed by modernisation and free-market capitalism. A fascinating and insightful read.
Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, writer and illustrator. show less
Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, writer and illustrator. show less
This is a very readable book about the author's experience of and in China. She first went to China as a young woman who firmly believed in Mao's theories and in socialism. As the book's subtitle, "My Long March from Mao to Now" implies, her views change over time as she experiences life in China. The book traces her experiences at Beijing University, at a collective farm, and as a reporter at Tiannamen Square in 1989.
Ms. Wong's experiences in China are diverse and probably unmatched by show more many North Americans. This gives her book a fascinating and unique perspective that is well worth reading. show less
Ms. Wong's experiences in China are diverse and probably unmatched by show more many North Americans. This gives her book a fascinating and unique perspective that is well worth reading. show less
Wong is a Canadian journalist of Chinese heritage who has been a correspondent for many major newspapers around the world. But in the early seventies, just out of high school, she went to Beijing to continue her education at Beijing University. The Cultural Revolution was in full swing and Wong was a disciple. She was taught Mandarin, the official language, she did manual labor in a factory and in the fields, she was housed with the other, few, foreign students and potential friends were show more vetted, and in one instance, she ratted out a girl who asked for help getting to America. It's that action that brings Wong, now with a husband and two teenage sons, back to Beijing thirty-three years later, in hopes of finding the girl she wronged, or at least finding out what became of her, as she disappeared from school soon after Wong turned her in. With only a surname to go by, Wong tries to track down this woman in a city of millions, in a place where no one wants to remember what they did and what was done to them during the Revolution.
This story is not only about Wong's search for the person she turned in, but an inside look at how the Revolution worked under Chairman Mao and the Communist Party, and how China and Beijing have drastically changed in modern times with the country becoming "the factory of the world". Wong re-connects with friends, roommates and enemies from her university days in an attempt to track this girl, but leaves nearly each meeting feeling that a cover-up is in progress, turning this non-fiction into a mystery. I had a hard time putting this one down. show less
This story is not only about Wong's search for the person she turned in, but an inside look at how the Revolution worked under Chairman Mao and the Communist Party, and how China and Beijing have drastically changed in modern times with the country becoming "the factory of the world". Wong re-connects with friends, roommates and enemies from her university days in an attempt to track this girl, but leaves nearly each meeting feeling that a cover-up is in progress, turning this non-fiction into a mystery. I had a hard time putting this one down. show less
Definitely not in the same class as Red China Blues, which was an excellent book by Wong, this entry is basically a travelogue. Still, it is very readable with Wong's wit, humour, and ironic sense. It should be taken for what it is though, not a definitive history of Beijing, but one person's experience. In that sense, it is very entertaining.
My one reservation was that throughout the book, I did wonder if the purpose of the trip truly was to apologize to this one indivdiual she wronged so show more long ago, or was the apologize just the preconceived premise for writing this book.
Still, I would recommend it. show less
My one reservation was that throughout the book, I did wonder if the purpose of the trip truly was to apologize to this one indivdiual she wronged so show more long ago, or was the apologize just the preconceived premise for writing this book.
Still, I would recommend it. show less
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 9
- Members
- 1,190
- Popularity
- #21,606
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 23
- ISBNs
- 45
- Languages
- 4