Interview with Author Michael Meyer: In Manchuria

Michael Meyer, author of In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China discussed the genesis of his new book, the village called Wasteland (set in the beautiful landscape of Jilin Province), his research process and life in the village in an interview with National Committee Program Officer Maura Elizabeth Cunningham on April 2, 2015. As the author of the acclaimed The Last Days of Old Beijing (2008), Mr. Meyer received a Whiting Writers Award for nonfiction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He also won a Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers. Mr. Meyer's stories have appeared in the New York Times, Time, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Slate, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and on This American Life. He recently taught literary journalism at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Center, and is now an assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh where he teaches nonfiction writing. He divides his time between Pittsburgh and Singapore. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations is the leading nonprofit nonpartisan organization that encourages understanding of China and the United States among citizens of both countries.