A Family History of China's Opening to the World

When journalist Scott Tong moved to Shanghai, his assignment was to start up the first full-time China bureau for "Marketplace," the daily business and economics program on public radio stations across the United States. But the move offered Tong much more - the opportunity to reconnect with members of his extended family who had remained in China after his parents fled the communists six decades prior.

In "A Village with My Name," Tong focuses on five members of his family, who each offer a specific window on a changing country: a rare American-educated girl born in the closing days of the Qing Dynasty, a pioneer exchange student, an abandoned toddler from World War II who later rides the wave of China’s global export boom, a young professional climbing the ladder at a multinational company, and an orphan (the author’s daughter) adopted in the middle of a baby-selling scandal fueled by foreign money.

Through their stories, Tong shows us China anew, visiting former prison labor camps on the Tibetan plateau and rural outposts along the Yangtze, exploring the Shanghai of the 1930s, and touring factories across the mainland.   With curiosity and sensitivity, Tong explores the moments that have shaped China and its people, offering a compelling and deeply personal take on how China became what it is today.  

• Location campus Central Library
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  • Author Talk