China

Journalist Stan Sesser, who details the successful marketing of American cigarettes in Asian countries in a New Yorker article, (September 6, 1993). Sesser claims the continent of Asia consumes half the world's cigarettes. Of particular interest to American tobacco firms is China -- despite explicit laws prohibiting the sale or advertising of foreign cigarettes -- because three hundred million people smoke (more people than the entire population of the United States).

Harry Wu is a resident scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He came to the U.S. from China where he was held in a prison labor camp for 19 years. The son of a wealthy banker, Wu was a newly graduated college student when he was arrested in 1960 and denounced as an "enemy of the revolution." In the camps he endured torture, starvation, and he learned to "stop thinking in order to survive." In 1979 he was released.

Wu, who survived 19 years in Chinese labor camps, died Tuesday. Born in China, Wu had lived in the United States since 1985 and was an active proponent of human rights. Originally broadcast in 1994.

Shanghai-born author, Anchee Min. She grew up in China during the last years of Mao's Cultural Revolution. In her memoir, "Red Azalea" (Pantheon), Min recounts her experiences as an 11-year old leader in her school's Little Red Guard, then as a laborer at a work camp where she became the secret lover of her female commander. When Madam Mao began her reform of China's film industry, Min was chosen from 20,000 candidates to become a screen actress because she had a face that was thought to represent the working class.

China scholar Orville Schell has written nine books about China, as well as contributed to magazines and television. His latest book, "Mandate of Heaven," examines the Tiananmen Square massacre and looks at how the younger generation will come to power. He says popular culture has become the newest arena for dissent and political change.

Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn were Beijing correspondents for "The New York Times" from 1988 to 1993. They won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. They have just written a book called "China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power." It explores the contradiction in China of a booming economy paired with terrible human rights abuses, as the country struggles to become a new world power.

Sidney Jones, is regional director of Human Rights Watch in Asia. Recently Human Rights Watch published a report on abandoned children in China, and their treatment in China's state-funded orphanages, "Death by Default: A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China's State Orphanages." The report finds the death rate in the orphanages "staggering," and in some cases constitutes a sinister "systematic program of child elimination." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane) f

Kay Ann Johnson does research on adoption and abandonment in China, for the Committee for Scholarly Communications with China 1995-1996. She says that the Human Rights Watch report misrepresents the scope of the problem in Chinese state-run orphanages and that she has seen no systematic official policy of letting children die. Johnson is a Professor of Asian Studies and Political Science at Hampshire College. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

British filmmaker Kate Blewett. Using a concealed camera, Blewett and crew visited eleven state-funded orphanages in China and filmed in nine of them. They documented such things as toddlers whose hands and legs were tied to potty chairs all day, and the rooms where children are left to die. They also say that many of the children were girls, victims of China's One Child Policy, and the Chinese tradition that favors sons over daughters. "The Dying Rooms: China's Darkest Secret" debuts on CINEMAX (Jan 24 at 8 PM). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Janice Neilson, Executive Director of World Association for Children and parents (WACAP), a non-profit organization for parents who are interested in adopting children at risk worldwide. She has worked with Chinese children's institutions since 1991. Neilson says her observations are "at variance" with the conclusions of the Human Rights Watch report. Neilson urges that China not be judged by our standards but by the "standards of the developing world." She says that Chinese authorities are trying to improve the situation. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

China scholar Orville Schell, and Vice Chairman of Human Rights Watch, Asia. He will be talking about the crisis between China and Taiwan. SCHELL has written nine books on China, as well as contributing to magazines and television. His latest book is "Mandate of Heaven: A New Generation of Entrepreneurs, Dissidents, Bohemians, and Technocrats Lays Claim to China's Future." (Simon & Schuster, 1994). Schell is also a board member of Human Rights in China. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Chinese-Canadian journalist, Jan Wong.... She went to China as an idealistic radical student in the 70's and believed in the Cultural Revolution and even informed on a couple of people. But she eventually left China, totally disillusioned. Years later she returned as a reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail and covered the Tiananmen Square massacre. She talks about her new book, "Red China Blues". (Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1996)

Director Wong Kar-Wai . The writer and director of 1994's "Chungking Express," 1995's "Fallen Angels" and this year's "Happy Together," Wong has worked in the Hong Kong film industry for 15 years, and is continuing to gain a strong American following. Wong was named "Best Director" at this year's Cannes film festival for "Happy Together." He is currently working on his next film, "Summer in Beijing."

Filmmaker Wayne Wang. With the films "Chan is Missing," "Dim Sum," "Slamdance" and "Eat a Bowl of Tea," to his credit, Wang was the first Chinese-American film director to make an impact in the American film industry. Wang went on to direct "The Joy Luck Club," and the films "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face." His newest film is set in Hong Kong, "Chinese Box" starring Jeremy Irons.

China scholar Orville Schell. He will be talking about President Clinton's imminent visit to China. Schell has appeared on ABC, NBC, and CBS, and produced shows for Frontline and Sixty Minutes. He's a board member of the Yale-China Association and Human Rights Watch, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Schell was just appointed Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. Schell has written many books on China.

China scholar Orville Schell returns to update us on President Clinton's trip to China. Schell is a board member of the Yale-China Association and Human Rights Watch, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Schell is Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. He has written many books on China. His last was "Mandate of Heaven: A New Generation of Enterpreneurs, Dissidents, Bohemians, and Technocrats Lays Claim to China's Future." (Simon & Schuster, 1994). Schell was last on Fresh Air Wednesday, June 24, 1998.

We talk about the Chinese tradition of foot binding with photojournalist Beverly Jackson. Her new book is called "Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of An Erotic Tradition." (Ten Speed Press) Jackson is a collector of antique Chinese slippers, and will talk about the history, culture and implications of bound feet.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Lost in Translation," a new romance set in China.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Waiting" (Pantheon) by Ha Jin the winner of this year's National Book Award for fiction, a novel which is set in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two new novels about China: “Becoming Madame Mao”(Houghton Mifflin) a fictional biography by Anchee Min, and the detective novel, “Death of a Red Heroine” (Soho) by Qui Xialong.