From Baghdad to Beijing: Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent

21st Century China Program presents foreign correspondent Evan Osnos. He will discuss his new book “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China,” as well as his reflections on the pitfalls and challenges of being a foreign correspondent.

Foreign correspondent Evan Osnos is widely considered one of the most incisive and productive journalists of his generation. In this public lecture, he will discuss his new book "Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China” — based on eight years of living in Beijing — as well as his reflections on the pitfalls and challenges of being a foreign correspondent.

A welcome reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. with the program starting at 7 p.m.

Bio
Currently a staff writer based in Washington, Evan Osnos writes about politics and foreign affairs. After witnessing 9/11 as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, he was reassigned to the Middle East to cover the emerging United States war against Iraq. In 2005, Osnos moved to Beijing and became the bureau chief for the Tribune, where he was part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. In 2008 he became the China correspondent for The New Yorker magazine replacing Peter Hessler, and served in this position until 2013.

Since relocating to Washington, he has written extensive profiles of Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. For four years, he wrote the Letter from China column for newyorker.com, and his article “The Fallout” won a 2012 Overseas Press Club Award.

A contributor to “This American Life” and “Frontline,” Osnos is the recipient of the Osborn Elliott Prize and a Livingston Award for Young Journalists. His work is anthologized in “The Best American Writing on Nature and Science 2010,” “The Best Spiritual Writing 2012” and “Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land.” As the Washington Post has said of him, "In the pages of The New Yorker, Evan Osnos has portrayed, explained and poked fun at this new China better than any other writer from the West or the East.”