2008 Woodie Awards
Washington Post writer to lecture on China
John DeBruicker
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: News & Features
- Page 1 of 1
In light of recent Jan Plan programs for students to study Economics in China, there is much to learn from a booming Eastern culture that is quickly outgrowing its societal tenets. John Pomfret, author of Chinese Lessons and expert on China and immigration for the Washington Post, will deliver a lecture on the changes facing the world's most populous nation on Wednesday, Feb. 28 in Lovejoy 100. The event is sponsored by Government East Asian Studies, International Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies. Pomfret credited Walter Hatch, assistant Professor of Government, for bringing him to campus.
Pomfret majored in East Asian Studies at Stanford University and transferred to Nanjing University for his senior year when he was 21. It was the first time he had seen the place he had been studying for his whole college career. "I lived with seven guys in a 10 by 15 foot room with bunk beds, desks in the middle of the room and some stools," Pomfret said. Once a rower at Stanford, Pomfret lost 25 pounds in his year in Nanjing.
His roommates in that overcrowded space would go on to become the inspiration for Chinese Lessons: An American, His Classmates and the Story of New China. After his 20th class reunion, Pomfret decided to put the stories from his colleagues together in a book form to create a commentary on the changing nature of China.
"China has had this amazing run of economic development. The GDP has not only doubled, it has tripled," Pomfret said, explaining the impetus for his talk. "China has a very compressed history," he added, citing the fact that the sexual and industrial revolutions took 200 years for the rest of the world to complete while China did both in 30. Since the death of Mao Zedong, China has had to rapidly adjust to capitalism and reconsider its cultural values with respect to its new ideologies.
Because it deals with Chinese issues outside the realm of cheap labor, Pomfret hopes his book and speech will give "a very intimate way of trying to get Americans to understand how Chinese people really live." He writes about his roommates' and his own love lives and the changing social scene in addition to the macroscopic business aspects of Chinese life.
According to Pomfret, China's growth has been hindered by environmental, demographic and social constraints. Without what he calls a "moral compass," China has made itself a difficult society to live in. He hopes his work will shed light on the complexities of life in China, but he does not say it will substitute for visiting the real thing. "I hope to give [the audience] an understanding, but China really is a place that you should go and go young," he said. "Learning Chinese is an amazing thing to do, and it's not as hard as many people think. If I can do it anybody can do it."
Pomfret majored in East Asian Studies at Stanford University and transferred to Nanjing University for his senior year when he was 21. It was the first time he had seen the place he had been studying for his whole college career. "I lived with seven guys in a 10 by 15 foot room with bunk beds, desks in the middle of the room and some stools," Pomfret said. Once a rower at Stanford, Pomfret lost 25 pounds in his year in Nanjing.
His roommates in that overcrowded space would go on to become the inspiration for Chinese Lessons: An American, His Classmates and the Story of New China. After his 20th class reunion, Pomfret decided to put the stories from his colleagues together in a book form to create a commentary on the changing nature of China.
"China has had this amazing run of economic development. The GDP has not only doubled, it has tripled," Pomfret said, explaining the impetus for his talk. "China has a very compressed history," he added, citing the fact that the sexual and industrial revolutions took 200 years for the rest of the world to complete while China did both in 30. Since the death of Mao Zedong, China has had to rapidly adjust to capitalism and reconsider its cultural values with respect to its new ideologies.
Because it deals with Chinese issues outside the realm of cheap labor, Pomfret hopes his book and speech will give "a very intimate way of trying to get Americans to understand how Chinese people really live." He writes about his roommates' and his own love lives and the changing social scene in addition to the macroscopic business aspects of Chinese life.
According to Pomfret, China's growth has been hindered by environmental, demographic and social constraints. Without what he calls a "moral compass," China has made itself a difficult society to live in. He hopes his work will shed light on the complexities of life in China, but he does not say it will substitute for visiting the real thing. "I hope to give [the audience] an understanding, but China really is a place that you should go and go young," he said. "Learning Chinese is an amazing thing to do, and it's not as hard as many people think. If I can do it anybody can do it."
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