http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/2011-12/02/content_14203298.htm
Memoir recounts 47 years of progress
Updated: 2011-12-02 11:18
By Cheng Guangjin (China Daily)
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Diplomat details efforts to expand Sino-US ties, Cheng Guangjin reports in Washington.
When Chi Wang came to the United States 62 years ago as a teenager, he never expected one day he would write a memoir as an accomplished librarian and an important figure in promoting Sino-US relations.
A Compelling Journey from Peking to Washington: Building a New Life in America, Wang’s memoir published this year and written in English, is not a thick book at only 210 pages. But Wang, president of the US-China Policy Foundation, said the book can be finished “reading it on a flight connecting the two capitals of China and the US”.
Wang dedicated 47 years to the US Library of Congress and to co-founding the US-China Policy Foundation. He retired from his post as the head of the Chinese branch of the Library of Congress in 2004.
The idea of establishing the foundation occurred to Wang in the early 1990s when bilateral relations were poor. In 1992, after chairing a roundtable event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Shanghai Communiqu, Wang; John Holdridge, who was present at the drafting of the communiqu; former US ambassador to China Arthur W. Hummel; and former State Department officials gathered to discuss how to create an organization to patch up relations.
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Wang, whose father is General Wang Shuchang and was a high-ranking official in China’s Nationalist government from the 1920s through the 1940s, came to the US in 1949 at the age of 17.
He learned English in Manhattan College for two years before studying agriculture at the University of Maryland with the intention of some day returning to China.
But because of the Korean War, he was unable to return to China after graduating from college and instead took a teaching opportunity at an institute run by the US State Department. He said it opened new doors for his career.
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[JR: Fascinating story and it might not even been "our" Manhattan College. "Assignment Desk, dispatch a reporter from the DC office to confirm this immediately!" (At least that's my perception of how a real newsroom would work.) But we don't have ... Maybe one of the readers around DC would like to talk to this chap. I bet it would be interesting!]
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From: McEneney, Mike (MC1953)
Date: Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 7:28 PM
Subject: Memoir recounts 47 years of progress
Dear John,
I believe that he is one of our “attendees”. In my class there was another son of a former high ranking Nationalist office holder by the name of Chow. It is quite possible that Mr. Wang was also on Campus at that time.
Mike
[JR: Fascinating stuff. Amazes me, I just thought folks went to MC for a degree and may drop out before. Now it appears, folks, like Nuns and Foreigners, just dropped in for awhile. Hmm.]
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