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Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
by John Pomfret
As a twenty-year-old exchange student from Stanford University, John Pomfret spent a year at
Nanjing University in China. His fellow classmates were among those who survived the twin
tragedies of Mao’s rule—the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution—and whose success
in government and private industry today are shaping China’s future. Pomfret went on to a career
in journalism, spending the bulk of his time in China. After attending the twentieth reunion of his
class, he decided to reacquaint himself with some of his classmates. Chinese Lessons is their story
and his own.
Chinese Lessons is a riveting portrait of the Chinese people and the kind of lives that are making
the China of tomorrow.
About the Author
Outlook section editor; former Los Angeles bureau chief and former Beijing bureau chief, The
Washington Post
Author, Chinese Lessons
Osborne Elliot Award for Excellence in Asian Journalism, The Asia Society (2003)
Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, Alicia Patterson Foundation, for “Chinese Lives and
Lessons: The Class of ’82 Nanjing University” (2004)
Fulbright Scholar, Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (researching the Cambodian
conflict)
Speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian
BA and MA, East Asian Studies, Stanford University and Nanjing University
Currently John Pomfret has a blog (Pomfret's China) in Washington Post
by John Pomfret
As a twenty-year-old exchange student from Stanford University, John Pomfret spent a year at
Nanjing University in China. His fellow classmates were among those who survived the twin
tragedies of Mao’s rule—the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution—and whose success
in government and private industry today are shaping China’s future. Pomfret went on to a career
in journalism, spending the bulk of his time in China. After attending the twentieth reunion of his
class, he decided to reacquaint himself with some of his classmates. Chinese Lessons is their story
and his own.
Chinese Lessons is a riveting portrait of the Chinese people and the kind of lives that are making
the China of tomorrow.
About the Author
Outlook section editor; former Los Angeles bureau chief and former Beijing bureau chief, The
Washington Post
Author, Chinese Lessons
Osborne Elliot Award for Excellence in Asian Journalism, The Asia Society (2003)
Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship, Alicia Patterson Foundation, for “Chinese Lives and
Lessons: The Class of ’82 Nanjing University” (2004)
Fulbright Scholar, Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (researching the Cambodian
conflict)
Speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian
BA and MA, East Asian Studies, Stanford University and Nanjing University
Currently John Pomfret has a blog (Pomfret's China) in Washington Post
