At the Edge of Empire (Paperback)
A Family's Reckoning with China: FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2025
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The essential history of modern China, told through the story of one family
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
'A brilliant personal account of China's borderlands and peoples' Francis Fukuyama
'Edward Wong is about as knowledgeable a guide to China as a reader could ever hope to find' Barbara Demick
In 1962, Edward Wong's father, disillusioned with Communism, fled China for Hong Kong and later the USA. From then on, he rarely spoke of his homeland, or his years crisscrossing the country in Mao's People's Liberation Army.
Much later, Edward became Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, and was drawn into investigating his father's past even as he assessed a resurgent China under Xi Jinping. Witnessing civil rights struggles in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, Wong reached a deeper understanding of his family and the nation. This chronicle of nearly a century of momentous change reveals China as it catapulted into the superpower age.
At the Edge of Empire (Hardback)
A Family's Reckoning with China: FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2025
Buy from
The essential history of modern China, told through the story of one family
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
'A brilliant personal account of China's borderlands and peoples' Francis Fukuyama
'Edward Wong is about as knowledgeable a guide to China as a reader could ever hope to find' Barbara Demick
In 1962, Edward Wong's father, disillusioned with Communism, fled China for Hong Kong and later the USA. From then on, he rarely spoke of his homeland, or his years crisscrossing the country in Mao's People's Liberation Army.
Much later, Edward became Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, and was drawn into investigating his father's past even as he assessed a resurgent China under Xi Jinping. Witnessing civil rights struggles in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, Wong reached a deeper understanding of his family and the nation. This chronicle of nearly a century of momentous change reveals China as it catapulted into the superpower age.
At the Edge of Empire (Ebook)
A Family's Reckoning with China: FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2025
Buy from
The essential history of modern China, told through the story of one family
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
'A brilliant personal account of China's borderlands and peoples' Francis Fukuyama
'Edward Wong is about as knowledgeable a guide to China as a reader could ever hope to find' Barbara Demick
In 1962, Edward Wong's father, disillusioned with Communism, fled China for Hong Kong and later the USA. From then on, he rarely spoke of his homeland, or his years crisscrossing the country in Mao's People's Liberation Army.
Much later, Edward became Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, and was drawn into investigating his father's past even as he assessed a resurgent China under Xi Jinping. Witnessing civil rights struggles in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, Wong reached a deeper understanding of his family and the nation. This chronicle of nearly a century of momentous change reveals China as it catapulted into the superpower age.
At the Edge of Empire (Audiobook)
A Family's Reckoning with China: FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2025
Buy from
The essential history of modern China, told through the story of one family
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
'A brilliant personal account of China's borderlands and peoples' Francis Fukuyama
'Edward Wong is about as knowledgeable a guide to China as a reader could ever hope to find' Barbara Demick
In 1962, Edward Wong's father, disillusioned with Communism, fled China for Hong Kong and later the USA. From then on, he rarely spoke of his homeland, or his years crisscrossing the country in Mao's People's Liberation Army.
Much later, Edward became Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, and was drawn into investigating his father's past even as he assessed a resurgent China under Xi Jinping. Witnessing civil rights struggles in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, Wong reached a deeper understanding of his family and the nation. This chronicle of nearly a century of momentous change reveals China as it catapulted into the superpower age.
Reviews for At the Edge of Empire
Financial Times
The Spectator
Wall Street Journal
Francis Fukuyama
John Simpson Guardian
Rana Mitter, author China’s Good War
Julia Lovell, Professor of Modern China at Birkbeck College, University of London and author Maoism: A Global History
Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs columnist Washington Post
Edward Luce, Financial Times columnist and author The Retreat of Western Liberalism
Hsiao-Hung Pai, journalist and author Scattered Sand: The Story of China's Rural Migrants
Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author Age of Ambition
Barbara Demick, author Eat the Buddha and Nothing to Envy
Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society and author of more than a dozen books on China, including the recent novel My Old Home
Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author Our Country Friends
Te-Ping Chen, Wall Street Journal correspondent and author Land of Big Numbers
John Delury, author Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China
The Economist
The Atlantic
Washington Post