IN CONVERSATION: MEI FONG - ONE CHILD

IN CONVERSATION: MEI FONG, ONE CHILD

Photo: Andrew Lih

The Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winner Mei Fong to discuss her book, One Child, with former chief political correspondent for SBS Television, Catherine McGrath.

One Child examines the effects of the one-child policy on the global adoption market, among other unexpected side-effects. The book recently won a non-fiction award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She was recently voted by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 50 shapers of US-China relations. Mei Fong spent over a decade reporting in Asia, most notably as China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. She is a winner of Amnesty’s Human Rights Press Award.

One Child

For over three decades, China exercised unprecedented control over the reproductive habits of its billion citizens. Now, with its economy faltering just as it seemed poised to become the largest in the world, the Chinese government has brought an end to its one-child policy. It may once have seemed a shortcut to riches, but it has had a profound effect on society in modern China. Combining personal portraits of families affected by the policy with a nuanced account of China’s descent towards economic and societal turmoil, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong reveals the true cost of this most controversial of policies.

Date: Tuesday August 1 2017

Time: 5:15pm for 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Please note: A cash bar is available from 5:15pm to 6:00pm

Location: Turbine Hall, Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo NSW 2007

Registration is essential as seats are limited.

Copies of One Child will be available for purchase at the venue and Mei Fong will be available after the event for signing.

Parking and access
The Goods Line is a connection between Central Station, UTS and the Powerhouse Museum. The Museum is easily accessible by bus, train and taxi and is located approximately ten minutes' walk from Darling Harbour and Central.

For more information on how to get here using public transport please visit www.131500.com.au.

Wilson’s Parking Harbourside, 100 Murray Street, Pyrmont
Secure Parking, 320 Harris Street, Ultimo
Novotel Sydney Central Resort, 169-179 Thomas Street, Sydney

About the author

Mei Fong

Mei Fong is an author and journalist who owes the start of her writing career to the Queen of England. As a 16-year-old, the Malaysian-born Fong won an essay competition that garnered her an invitation to meet Queen Elizabeth II, in town for a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Emboldened by the meeting—'nothing so exciting had ever happened in my dull life until then,'— Fong resolved to become a journalist and writer.

After graduating from the National University of Singapore she started her journalism career as a reporter at The New Paper, writing stories on local crime, forest fires in Indonesia and gang warfare in Macau. In 1999 she moved to New York for graduate studies at Columbia University with a scholarship from Singapore’s Lee Foundation, graduating with a Masters in International Affairs. While a summer intern at Forbes, she created its Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list ('Sales from the Crypt') which is still published every year by the business magazine.

She joined The Wall Street Journal in 2001, covering the aftermath and recovery of New York city after the 9-11 attacks. Later, she covered Hong Kong and China, where she won a shared Pulitzer for her stories on China’s transformative process ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She is believed to be the first Malaysian to win a Pulitzer.

Her stories on China’s migrant workers also won a 2006 Human Rights Press Award from Amnesty International and the Hong Kong Correspondents Club, as well as awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia and Society of Professional Journalists. After leaving the China bureau, she was on faculty at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. She is currently a fellow at think tank New America.

She is married to journalism professor Andrew Lih. They have two sons and live in greater Washington DC.

Catherine McGrath

Catherine McGrath is one of Australia’s most experience journalists in the areas of politics and international affairs.

For three decades she has shared her insights with audiences via SBS and the ABC platforms. Most recently Catherine was bureau chief of SBS’s federal political bureau in Canberra and earlier was ABC Chief Political Correspondent, Asia Editor and Diplomatic Editor. As a foreign correspondent Catherine was South East Asia Correspondent for the ABC.

Catherine left journalism in 2016 to start the media consultancy Catherine McGrath Media. She is an in demand public speaker, facilitator and media trainer.