by Dori Jones Yang
My book, When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China’s Reawakening, brings to life the story of the eight years I spent as a foreign correspondent covering China during a pivotal time in its history, the 1980s.
Like good historical fiction, it draws readers in with a lively personal story and transports you to a faraway place and long-ago time.
As US-China relations deteriorated, I decided it was important to give Americans context to better understand how Chinese view their country’s growth and how enthusiastic US companies were to help them in the early years as they rose out of poverty.
Although I returned home from China in 1990, it took me several decades to reflect on my amazing experiences there and realize just how relevant they are today.
In My Memoir, I Wanted to Tell the Truth
Like many other memoirists, I had to grapple with strong emotions in dealing with certain aspects of my life.
In fact, I got completely frozen for half a year, unable to continue writing, till I worked out how to incorporate some tough setbacks into my written story.
Also, when dealing with real people who are still alive and might read the book, I had to tread carefully and consult with them. I didn’t want to invade their privacy or insult them! But I did want to tell the truth as I experienced it.
I Wondered: Why Would Anybody Care About My Life?
It took me six years to complete this book. I often wondered: why would anybody care about my life?
I found inspiration in Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, who wrote fascinating personal stories that taught me a lot about Kenya in the 1920s and 1930s.
When I got frozen and discouraged, I stepped back from the idea of a published memoir and began writing about my life—just free-form writing without stopping to check facts.
Later I used this quickly sketched draft as the basis for my well-researched book. It helped me to write through those tough moments, so I could process them and figure out which were relevant to this book and which were not.
This Book is My Best Writing By Far
I definitely understand myself and my motivations much better now, and this book is my best writing by far.
By the time I finished the book, I had gained a better perspective on how and why my experiences in the 1980s can help readers to understand China today.
I’ve continued to grow as I talk about my book in public, realizing what themes are most important and relevant today.
What I Hope for My Book
I hope readers will identify with me as a young woman breaking into a male-dominated field and will find China to be a fascinating and complex place, made real by the Chinese people I met and describe.
In the last year, people-to-people contact between Chinese and Americans has dropped off, making it harder for us to relate to Chinese as individuals. I hope my book will be an antidote to that.
Advice for a Young Writer: Persist!
- Persist! When discouraged, find workarounds.
- Select a few similar books you really admire and copy some of the techniques those authors used.
- If the genre is new to you, take courses in it. I took an online course called Write Your Memoir in Six Months, and it helped me enormously.
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An experienced journalist, author, and 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.
For more information on Dori and her work, please see her website or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
When the Red Gates Open: When China opened its doors in the 1980s, it shocked the world by allowing private enterprise and free markets. As a foreign correspondent for BusinessWeek, Dori Jones Yang was among the first American journalists to cover China under Deng Xiaoping, who dared to defy Maoist doctrine as he rushed to catch up with richer nations. Fluent in Mandarin, she got to know ordinary Chinese people―who were embracing opportunities that had once been unimaginable in China.
This deeply personal story 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―shared by American businesses and Chinese citizens alike―reached its peak in 1989, when peaceful protestors filled Tiananmen Square, demanding democracy. On the ground in Beijing, Dori lived that hope, as well as the despair that followed.
You’ll be inspired by this book of empowerment about a young woman from Ohio who pushed aside barriers to become a foreign correspondent and then persevered despite setbacks.
Written in a time when China’s rapid rise is setting off fears in Washington, this book offers insight into the daring policies that started it all.
Available at Amazon, Indiebound, and Bookshop.