Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Mei Fong was born August 8, 1972). Malaysian-Chinese-American, Fong grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and attended National University of Singapore for undergraduate studies. The Wall Street Journal full-time in 2001 as staff reporter for the China bureau. In April 2007, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting as part of the bureau's "sharply edged reports on the adverse impact of China's booming capitalism on conditions ranging from inequality to pollution."
In 2013, Fong received a book contract by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to write about China's one-child policy and its global implications.[
Mei Fong's website
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What led you to write One Child?
I've always thought China's one-child policy was one of the most fascinating things about the country, like something straight out of Orwell or Huxley, except it's not science-fiction, it's real life. Not only is it the world's most radical social experiment, it's still going on, and has been for thirty-plus years. It has irrevocably shaped how one sixth of the world live, love and die. The one child policy has created huge imbalances in China: too old, too male, and possibly, too few workers to service a massive group of retirees. (By 2050, 1 in 4 people in China will be a retiree.) And then you've got over 100 million families that have only one child—will this create an entitled, coddled generation unlike any other? What happens when these children grow up to shoulder support of ailing parents, in-laws, grandparents, in a nation that will hold more than half the world's Alzheimer and Parkinson sufferers? And what is a Canadian-sized population of bachelors going to do for mates?
With such a massive topic, how do you find a good handle on telling the story?
In my years reporting on China for the Wall Street Journal I'd frequently come across ...
Leslie T. Chang lived in China for a decade as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, specializing in stories that explored how socioeconomic change is transforming institutions and individuals. She has also written for... (more)
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Rob Schmitz is the China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace, the largest business news program in the U.S. with more than 12 million listeners a week. He has reported on a range of topics illustrating China... (more)
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