Sasha Gong is a scholar, writer, journalist and a lifelong political activist. She was born in the People’s Republic of China in 1956.

In the 1970s, she worked as a mechanic in a factory for seven years. In 1979, she was admitted to Peking University and earned a B.A. and an M.A. in history.

In 1988, she began graduate studies at Harvard University and earned a Ph.D. in sociology in 1995. Since then, she has taught at UCLA, George Washington University and George Mason University, worked as director of the Cantonese Service at Radio Free Asia and served as senior program officer at the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, AFL-CIO.

She has published a few books and numerous articles in the Chinese-language press. She is one of the most-read magazine column writers in China. Her Chinese-blog, which discusses American politics, culture and economics, together with her published articles, has attracted millions of readers worldwide.

 

In 2009, Sasha is running to represent the 46th District in Virginia's House of Delegates. You can visit her campaign website here.







What makes this book different from other Cultural Revolution memoirs is that the author wrote the stories from the perspective of becoming an American. Embracing American culture, and speaking as one of a handful of scholars who can travel back and forth intellectually between Eastern and Western culture, the author provides American readers with comprehensible narratives about a mysterious, yet not-so-remote, society.