A Family Derailed: On Writing ‘Trains’ (opens in new tab)

ChinaFile recently published “Trains: A Chinese Family History of Railway Journeys, Exile, and Survival,” by Zha Jianying, the journalist and author of some of the most memorable recent books on contemporary China and particularly Chinese culture. This is a lightly edited, abridged transcript of a conversation between Zha Jianying and ChinaFile Editor-in-Chief Susie Jakes and Editorial Fellow Jeremy Goldkorn.ChinaFile: Trains opens with a joyful, cinematic scene of you as a kid, a tough girl ...