Sasha Gong (fifth of five bios of dissidents who met with Bush).

Sasha Gong, 52 - scholar, writer, journalist and a lifelong political activist - would have to be considered a major “brain”. Considering that despite not having finished elementary school as a result of having been sent down to the country side in the very early 70’s, then from 1972 to 1978 being compelled to stultifying work as a mechanic in a factory, and then in ’79, spending a year in prison, Sasha still managed to achieve the highest score among 200,000 competitors in her province when she sat for the national university entrance exam just before her 23rd birthday. Unsurprisingly, she was subsequently admitted to Peking University, China's top postsecondary academy, where in eight years she earned a B.A. and an M.A. in history. In 1988, she began graduate studies with a fellowship to Harvard University and earned a Ph.D. in sociology in 1995.

In the late 70s she formed an underground dissident group. Through their writings, they urged people to consider democracy and rule of law as an alternative to communist dictatorship. Apprehended and convicted of anti-state crimes, during her imprisonment she was subjected to intense interrogation, and public humiliation upon release. Throughout the ordeal, she never stopped her pursuit of freedom through learning and thinking. Sasha Gong was born a rebel.

Gong arrived in the United States around ’87-’88. In her memoir, “Born American: A Chinese Woman’s stories of Inadequacy, Rebellion and Redemption”, she relates that something inside of her had suddenly clicked, and for the first time in her life she felt at home; She had been born an American- it had just taken her 31 years to get there. A press release for her memoir reads, “This book depicts China's baby-boomer generation through the author's personal anecdotes of the 1960s and 1970s: how they grew up, what they believed, what they feared and what they desired. While a cursory examination would conclude that nothing about the China of 1967 suggested the China of 2007, the stories show that the seeds of the great transformation were actually planted during those years. The author explores how the political system penetrated and perverted family relationships and did much damage to individuals and social groups. The stories are written from the perspective of becoming an American. Embracing American culture, and speaking as one of a handful of scholars who can travel back and forth intellectually between Eastern and Western culture, Gong provides readers with comprehensible narratives about the human factors behind the phenomenon of China’s rise, and the people behind its quantum leap from communism to capitalism”. (The Ant says, “I need to read this book”).

In her recent meeting with Bush she urged him to press for greater American media access to China. She suggested that he propose a free information exchange agreement with China. She reminded him that the Chinese government is already educating the American public about China, but without much reciprocity.

For several years now CCTV has been available in America via cable subscription, and dozens of Chinese channels are available by satellite. Chinese newspapers are also available with a subscription. Additionally, Chinese web sites are free and are always available. China has developed plenty of ways, backed by massive government funding, to explain itself to U.S. citizens.

When she informed the president that her blog about America has attracted millions of Chinese readers, he responded, "If you have millions of readers, what are you complaining for?" "I am complaining that I am a one-man band," she replied. Given that broadcasting into China by the American equivalent of CCTV, Voice of America, is often jammed, and its Web site is frequently blocked, the impact of U.S. government-sponsored programs is negligible. Nothing anywhere near the wave saturation of China International Radio, which can be heard on AM WUST, Baltimore, and WNWR, Philadelphia, even remotely exists for American governmental broadcasting in China.

She claims that the lack of good information has created an image problem for the United States with the Chinese people. (America, an image problem? Nah, impossible. Especially these days. Our President has seen to that. Any rate, I personally nominate NPR as a good choice of broadcasting material to beam into the Dragon’s ear).

Sasha Gong has taught sociology at UCLA and George Washington University, worked as director of the Cantonese Service at Radio Free Asia, and served as senior program officer at the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, AFL-CIO. She has published a few books and numerous articles in the Chinese-language press. She is one of the most-read magazine column writers in China. Her blog, http://gongxiaoxia.blog.tianya.cn/, which discusses American politics, culture and economics, attracted 640,000 visits in its first eight months, and has received that many in the last four months or so, and is now up to 1.3 million hits.

Books and Publications:

Born American: A Chinese Woman’s stories of Inadequacy, Rebellion and Redemption

www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/programs/EastAsia/file/US-China%20Conference.pdf

Credit to www.publishersmarketplace.com/rights/display.cgi?no=5620 - 20k -