EPISODE · Jul 13, 2016 · 20 MIN
Life Stories #83: Val Wang
from Life Stories · host ronhogan
In her memoir, Beijing Bastard, Val Wang writes about growing up as a Chinese-American and then moving to Beijing in the late 1990s: "I think a lot of people think I was looking for my roots; that's a popular storyline for a Chinese-American. But it was really the opposite for me. I was really rebelling from my roots and looking for myself. That very American kind of journey abroad to find yourself is what I thought I was there for."
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What this episode covers
Val Wang's grandparents fled China in 1949, just before the Communists took power, but many of her relatives did stay behind, so when she moved to Beijing in 1998, she was able to stay with them at first. Then, because she couldn't afford the housing that was designated for foreigners, she found an apartment so far on the outskirts of town that the road eventually ran out of pavement. Beijing Bastard is the story of how Wang set out not to discover her roots, but to find herself.
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Life Stories #83: Val Wang
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