Letters

Li Xing: Personal recollections

Li Xing and I were quite close. To me she was always Xiao (Young) Li since we first met in the main editorial office of China Daily in the 1980s.

There weren't many foreigners from English-speaking countries working in Chinese government units in Beijing in those days. Li Xing and I clicked immediately. I was an American who had joined in China's revolutionary struggles, became a Chinese citizen, and spoke the language like an old Beijinger. Xiao Li had lived in the United States for several years, went to schools there, and admired what she found in the best of America's culture and its people. She spoke a pure relaxed American colloquial.