Chinese Lessons

John Pomfret talked about his book Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China, published by Henry Holt and Co. Mr. Pomfret was in one of the first groups of American students to study in China. Later he spent a good deal of his career as a journalist in China. On the occasion of the 20th reunion of his Nanjing class, he decided to reacquaint himself with his classmates. His classmates were among those who survived Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution and whose success in government and private industry are determining the country’s future. In the book, Mr. Pomfret examines China’s cultural and economic transformation from totalitarianism. During this talk about his book, Mr. Pomfret told of the death of a classmate’s father who was killed for being an intellectual; of another classmate who labored in the fields rather than participate in an arranged marriage; and of a third classmate who was forced to publicly denounce his father. He responded to close