Liu Hongjie (China), Skyline, 2021. Late last year, a colleague sent me a letter decrying some of my writings about China, notably the last newsletter of 2023. This newsletter is my response to him. The situation in China is the cause of a great deal of consternation amongst the left. I am glad you have raised the
October 26, 2018This article is more than 2 years old.
I was waiting in a fashionable cafe for Tang Xiaohe in the Dongzhimen district in Beijing. Every bit of the decor in the cafe signaled the prosperity of China’s capital city. So did the price of a cup of cappuccino.
Tang is a 35-year-old mother of one who works in a large tourism company. She contacted me when I put a call out via WeChat seeking women born under China’s one-child policy in the 1980s who were willing to talk about their transitions to employment and parenthood for my ongoing research.Tang chose this cafe, which is 2 miles away from her office, to avoid any lunchtime haunts frequented by her colleagues.