When the Red Gates Opened: A talk with Author Dori Jones Yang

Join us for a conversation with award-winning author Dori Jones Yang who spent eight years as a foreign correspondent for BusinessWeek covering China. In her new memoir, When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China’s Reawakening (to be released September 22, 2020), Yang brings to life this transformative time in history and in her personal life.

Dori was among the first American correspondents to cover China under Deng Xiaoping. Her deeply personal memoir follows her rise from rookie reporter to experienced journalist. Her cross-cultural romance gave her deeper insights into how Deng’s reforms led to hopes for better lives. This euphoria reached its peak in 1989, when peaceful protesters filled Tiananmen Square, demanding democracy. On the ground in Beijing, Dori lived that hope, as well as the despair that followed. After Tiananmen, she returned to America—only to watch as China resumed its growth.

Published in 2020, when China’s rapid rise is setting off fears in Washington, her memoir offers insight into the daring policies that started it all.

We are pleased to welcome this Seattle-area author to our webinar and look forward to a discussion that will bring nostalgia to early travelers to China and help younger members understand this tumultuous time in China’s recent history. The discussion will be moderated by the journalist and former editor of the Seattle Business Magazine, Leslie Helm.

Attendance is free. Registration is required. REGISTER HERE.

Speaker

Dori Jones Yang has written seven previous books, including a best-selling business book about Starbucks and two award-winning novels about Chinese children in America. When the Red Gates Opened is her first memoir. Educated in history at Princeton and in international studies at Johns Hopkins, Dori worked for eight years in the 1980s as a foreign correspondent for BusinessWeek, covering China during its pivotal years. From her current base near Seattle, she also worked as West Coast technology correspondent for U.S. News and World Report. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, she has traveled throughout China over forty years and spoken about her books across the United States.

Moderator

Leslie Helm is a former Tokyo correspondent for BusinessWeek, as well as former editor of Seattle Business magazine and author of Yokohama Yankee: My Family’s Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan.