Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban Migration

The National Committee on United States - China Relations presents a talk by Michelle Dammon Loyalka.

Michelle Dammon Loyalka will discuss her latest book, Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban Migration, at a National Committee program in New York. Eating Bitterness chronicles the triumphs and tribulations of China’s growing population of rural migrants and demonstrates how dealing with the issues facing this class of people constitutes China's most pressing domestic challenge. Copies of the book will be available at the program.

Michelle Dammon Loyalka has lived in China for 13 years, during which time she has written a language-learning textbook for kids, launched a business consulting company, co-hosted a call-in radio program, and headed the educational products division of a Chinese software company. From among her varied experiences, it was a six-month sojourn in a remote banana-farming village that first piqued her interest in modern-day China from the peasant point of view. In 2006 she won an Overseas Press Club scholarship for an essay that ultimately grew into Eating Bitterness, a book that chronicles the triumphs and tribulations of China’s growing population of rural migrants. A freelance journalist and editor, Loyalka holds a master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism and currently lives in Beijing.

Registration for this event will open soon.