I came across this book for want of something new to read. The synopsis was utterly intriguing as was the book itself from start to finish. I have to hand it to the author, she's got nerves of steel to pursue a career, live in a foreign country and at such a time! Honestly, I've never really bothered to look into China's history and culture. I've never even heard of that horrid massacre! Highly recommend this book for anyone who loves a good non fiction read and/or a book with a strong, female role model.

Many thanks to NetGalley and She Writes Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

this was a really unique memoir, I enjoyed the way the author wrote it and I enjoyed going on this journey with the author.

I had a lot of expectations with that book when I first started it. It seemed that the political aspects of that economical opening would be presented mixing Dori’s life in Hong Kong.

At the beginning, the book shows more of Dori’s job as journalist for Business Weekly, which was really interesting, her necessity of making conexions, building a name, interviewing remarkable people and so on. But it was quite frustrating how she built a tension around important meetings and wanting to interview people so that, when the moment came, the narrative would jump to an event of her life, without letting the reader know how that particular thing concerning her job went.

It was great that the book wants to show a China without all that prejudice western people tend to think about. Dori is concerned to say she already had an interest in China, that she studied Mandarin and there were a lot of times in which she clarified that her intention was not to demolish the barrier we creat when faced with a culture so different.

However, there were some comparisons between China and United States, and some comments about how the Bad Evil China™ made people so poor and miserable, as if capitalism hasn’t done the same, as if the United States were the best country in the world, without poor people, as if it is a country that does not promote wars, that did not encouraged dictatorships in all Latin America.

As a Latin American, it really bothers me to read those type of comments, to read that chineses souldiers were killing their own people as if the police in my country wasn’t militarized because of the US model of what a police corporation should be.

Somehow, I was still able to enjoy the book when reading about Dori’s life, the birth of her family and what a great journalist she was.

I enjoy reading books about China which include memoirs, books about Chinese people, and even a history book at times.

The author is writing specifically about her time in Asia living in Hong Kong with a brief stay in Beijing during the 1980's. She works for the magazine Business Week. I don't know much about being a journalist so that was interesting.

Each chapter begins with a Chinese word or phrase which relates to the chapter. I found that interesting as I do speak a bit of Chinese.

My first visit to Hong Kong was in 1991. Later we lived there. I was able to picture life in Hong Kong. (It appears that the book is to include various photos but that was not on the version I was reading.)

As you read the book, you do see how the author's view change as the events there change.

I found it fascinating to read about her experiences and seeing Tiananmen Square and the surrounding area just after the Tiananmen Square Incident.

I enjoyed the book. If you enjoy books written about an individual's experiences in China, I recommend this book.

I did read an e-copy and there were times that the words were not spaced correctly so words ran together making it a bit of a challenge.

Thank you to netgalley.com for a copy of this book to review. The comments and opinions are my own.

Yang writes an excellent personal memoir, but also a cultural history of China"s rapid transformation from a shuttered economy to a global powerhouse. I found the timeline exceedingly fascinating and Yang was on the cusp of it all as the foreign correspondent for Business Week. How the world and journalism has changed since typewriters and telex machines. Her personal history was equally interesting reading. The one drawback is the ARC did t have any of the pictures included. I would have loved to have seen those.

Like opening a time capsule, Dori Jones Yang paints a clear picture of the beginnings of a tumultuous friendship between China and the US, from the shore os Hong Kong, that remains relevant today. While I have yet to visit the mainland, I have been to Hong Kong several times and despite the several decades between Dori's sojourn and my brief visits at its heart the island territory has not changed. I never felt like I was reading about events that happened two decades before my birth but rather I felt as if I was standing in the thick of it, worrying about my Chinese tones and pounding the pavement looking for sources. Xiexie for allowing me this journey; I hope to return very soon.

When the Red Gates Opened, out September 22 // This book was incredible. In her memoir, Dori Jones Yang reflects on her years living in Hong Kong and reporting in Asia for BusinessWeek, specifically during a time of rapid economic growth in China during the 1980s. While most Americans were watching events unfold on their tv or in the papers, Dori was traveling around Asia and building trust with both citizens and officials inside China.

This memoir weaves back and forth between China’s history and Dori’s personal life. Her marriage to a Chinese man and her daughter being born in Hong Kong leaves her invested in the region not just career wise, but personally as well. She also touches on women in the workforce and how she navigated an intense journalism job with becoming a mother for the first time. The book starts when Dori moved to Hong Kong as a young journalist, and ends seven years later after she covered one of the biggest events in China, the Tiananmen Square massacre.

The writing was extremely well done (you can always count on a journalist to write a good book) and I definitely got a different perspective of China than I’ve ever seen before. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t know about the Tiananmen Square massacre and knew very little about China’s transition to capitalism. I teared up towards the end of this book thinking about all those college students protesting in the square. I 100% recommend this book for anyone who likes memoirs, asian history, or just an interesting and informative book on world affairs.