I wish people in the media would stop calling it Beijing University…the real name is PEKING University! I have been there and know. Using the name Beijing only shows you haven’t checked out your sources!
If you don’t agree with me…please check out the web site…

http://en.pku.edu.cn/

For the first time, I turned off NPR. Listening to that woman speak filled me with such outraged and disgust, I couldn’t continue.

I didn’t think it was possible for someone to disgust me more this morning than the AIG bonus recipients, but I was wrong.

Wow, this story has stopped me in my tracks. I am at work just pretending to work but riveted to the radio.

We all make mistakes when young we regret. The monumental impact of her decision to turn this person in cannot be understated. It is hard to imagine that she couldn’t realize what her decision would mean. How could she have convinced herself that this was the correct decsion? Pretty quick work of both branwashing and self denial.

I understand the previous commentor who said he turned off the radio.

Having just completed ‘Wild Swans’ by Jung Chang, I find Ms. Wong’s topic very interesting. “Wild Swans’ is a 3 generation story of grandmother, daughter and granddaughter. It goes from footbinding, through the Maoist cultural revolution and more. The Maoist time and the CR was incredibly cruel to nearly everyone. You were damned if you did and damned if you didn’t.

Sheryl,

It is so difficult to understand in our free society, but it was SO different for the Chinese people during this time. It’s harder to understand Ms.Wong because she should have known better, but Maoist were extremely devout, especially before the CR.

What percentage of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the victim?

I’m more upset by the accusatory tone Tom is taking (and these posters) than by this guest – This is a guest who truly went the extra mile later in life to make right what she had done wrong – something most people never do.

I think it would be incredibly hard to face such a misunderstood, massive wrong done to another human being – and that she is being very brave in reaching back into her past to find this girl.

Liz,

That is the crux of the issue. She was not innundated with Chinese brainwashing since a young age.

It takes courage to publicly admit such a terrible sin. Hoorah for COURAGE. Will the monetary rewards of this book be given to the victim of this betrayal?

Okay, I’m going to way in on this one. I can’t believe anyone can be such an idiot. She did just say she was stupid – but only after blaming her professors and McGill (who sound like idiots too).

When I was her age, I was in Indonesia during a port visit while in the USN. I was straight from the sticks but even I could tell something was wrong when I saw the reaction of crowd of tri-shaw taxis go from a disorganized mess to an orderly line-up along the street when one policeman strolled through by. This was out of fear.

I think she knew exactly what was going-on and it had nothing to do with being young and naive.

I do agree that her public admission of her actions takes courage. But since she has made her decision public, she is aware of the revulsion with which her betrayal would be viewed. She seems willing to take the public flogging to help get over the guilt.

Jan Wong is truly deluded. Her statement that it was a Tibetan contingent of the Red Guard that destroyed temples in Tibet is a communist party line. Check out the Chinese consulate’s website for an article that states something similar. This is Chinese propaganda and I wish Tom would ask her about this.

I have always thought it was funny how in universities and colleges all over this country and Canada as well there are these Marxist professors who simplified and used their power to spread propaganda against the capitalist system and the US all the while enjoying the freedoms that they condemned. Some of these academics who are living in ivory towers have a lot to answer for. As Jan Wong points out she went to China due to her professor’s influence.
To have no remorse for what he did is arrogance.

I applaud the author’s courage to even tell this story. In her youth and ignorance, she made a mistake in judgment and the repercussions impacted her young friend in a horrible way.

History is filled with people seeing oppression with rose colored glasses – who in there ignorance are complicit in the oppression.

Instead of judging her, we should try to learn from her story and how it applies to all Americans as most of us are immigrants from somewhere.

for example, Young American-born Somali’s are being recruited by extremists right now.

I am more interested in the authors victim than in her. I have only heard a little about her so far.

I have two questions:
1. Is Mrs. Wong’s still Maoist?
2. Is she going to give all the proceedings of her book to the VICTIM?

Hello Mr. Ashbrook:

I think that it would have been much more interesting if, instead of looking at this story as a microcosm, you had approached it with more knowledge of political psychology. Think of what people do in the name of ideology: remember the Holocaust, Japanese internment, two red scares in or own country, the Milgram experiments?

I feel that you have been naively critical of Jan Wong, who has been incredibly brave in trying to make amends. I have heard you handle your guests in this way in the past and I know that you are more intelligent than that. You forget to put things in a larger context and often come across as absurd.

Thank you,
Penny Powell

Person from early age know what is right what is wrong. It is shame she talk about it and probably making money. I grew up and was brainwashed in Soviet Union. I understand what happened but there is no excuse….People betrayed during whitch hunt, during holocust, incuisition and live ok

If we can forgive what she did when she was young, it is hard to forgive her to go back and find this woman and hurt this woman again.

Apparently she appologized again and again and the woman told her that ‘it’s ok’. And this is not enough that she has to tell the woman that ‘no one forced me to report you at the time but I did on my own’. Then the woman told her ‘that is really hurt’.

What kind of a person will do this? What’s the point are you trying to prove by finding her – to hurt the woman again and to redeem yourself?

A selfish and senseless person! You need to learn how to swallow your own sorrow and let others alone.

To Tom’s point that Jan’s story is about a time long past in China – unfortunately times have not changed that much.
Today people continue to report on each other to the communist regime – now it is for business advantages. A colleague of mine was reported by a competitor of “receiving funds from a foreign organization” i.e a consultant’s fee for advising US companies on labor issues in Chinese factories. She was harassed by the secret police and forced to pay a huge fine when she had done nothing illegal. People use this type of reporting for competitive gain now in China’s booming economy. China continues to maintain thousands of spies abroad to report on its people. This has been well documented.

I commend Jan Wong for her courage. Having worked with China for the past 25 years I understand the times she was in, and the Western idealism of the Cultural Revolution.

It just struck of the amazing relatedness of this morning’s programs.
The enormous, heedless, unapologetic, betrayal of the Wall Street bunch, and our attempts to obtain some justice.
The betrayal of one woman, her guilt, and attempts to achieve redemption amid a society that apparently could not care less.

All the issues of guilt, betrayal, and societal excess, and the search for justice are all involved in both.
Great show, once again.

Anybody who wants to bash Jan Wong’s naievete probably doesn’t know much about the Cultural Revolution. It was a time and a political environment that are almost incomprehensible to the Western mind.

Having read Ms. Wong’s account of it, “Red China Blues: The Long March from Mao to now,” as well as several other personal accounts of the Cultural Revolution, I find it wholly believable that Ms. Wong could have been taken in by the the rhetoric of idealism. Young people weren’t always as jaded and cynical as they are today.

That said, yes, the deed and its consequences are horrific. Yet I don’t doubt Ms. Wong’s sincerity in saying she didn’t realize fully what the repercussions would be. I think she’s incredibly courageous to tell this story. She must have realized she’d be making herself vulnerable to the condemnations of strangers. My hat’s off to her for trying to do the right thing and let others learn from her mistakes.

I could see why, in hindsight, people would feel so negatively towards Ms. Wong. However, I was very content for her to hear that her ‘victim’ had actually forgiven her.
I do however cringe when Mr. Ashbrook consistently interrupts his guests. I have been listening everday for years and still can’t believe such an obviosuly talented man continues to interrupt the flow of the interview by making some “clarifying” comments that are not necessary.

Nice story. But, it is somewhat an outsider’s view from westerner’s eyes. I was a victim once too, for different reason. If Ms. Wang is interested please contact me by e-mail.

I listened carefully to the program but did not hear when and how the author found out that the person she reported had been punished. Did she only learn what had happened about the time that she wrote her first book? OR did she learn that something awful had happened shortly after she left China? If the latter, what did sho do with that knowledge during the two decades between studying in China and when she first publicly acknowledged (in her first book) the role that she had played in the other woman’s fate?

I too have done things that I regretted in my life. I don’t know the author but I would hope that she has used the experience to become a wiser, more deliberate, more critical thinker and questioner of the status quo and what our national leaders tell us. As moral individuals, I think that the Hyppocratic oath applies in life and politics–”First do no harm.” Beyond that, we must all strive then strive, as the author did, to listen and understand others.

It’s interesting that it is the self righteous who are unable to forgive the self righteous behavior of the young Ms. Wong. Someday they will understand the truth in the phrase “there but for the grace of God go I.”

I think it is appropriate to judge her. She put herself on display with this book and the interview (and is most likely making money from the book). She chose to go to China and willingly betrayed someone potentially destroying that person’s life. She didn’t grow up in that society. She wasn’t coerced. She didn’t betray another to save her own family or even her own life. She doesn’t even qualify for the excuse that she was just following orders.

Great Story! I am at work listening so it was hard to listen to the whole thing. I have several thoughts.

For one, I like that she wanted to make amends for what she had done. Most people would rationalize it away with one excuse or another. It had been a long time and she was now with a family of her own. And to do this, whether it was part of her job or not, was at great expense to her and her family. Most people wouldn’t do it. So kudos to her.

Second, all of us were taught to respect authority. Being thrust into any situation and to always do the right thing under such circumstances requires prior experience and knowledge which she obviously did not have. It brings to mind the slave trade in America in which runaway slaves were caught in the north and sent back to their slaveowners in the south. (This is why their final destination on the Freedom Trail was Canada.) Nobody that I know of has fessed up for that injustice. Hard to forgive. Hard to understand. But many people turned them in.

Lastly, it is true, if we don’t honestly learn from our real past, our real history, we are destined to repeat it. Over and over again. Be Well!

I first, I wonder if this woman had actually ever been in Beijing or China!
No crime! No Pollution!
We are discussing this unbelievable story. Can she truly have been there?!
Is it all made up just to write her book and make money???
We will not buy this book.
She is also said that that she was surprised the lady had 5 homes built by American at Beijing University.
This person couldn’t have been in Beijing in 1972 and not know that the present Beijing University campus was an American School, a US Missionary School, formerly known as Yanjing University. They were eventually forced out of China…
Answer these Questions!
Where was the original Beijing University?
1972, what did Beijing people do if they were caught in the rain? Silly question!? Not if you were actually there in Beijing!
We could go on and on but we just don’t think that she was really there and there is no need to go on!!!
No! She was there … in 1972…

Tom
How could you let this person on the air at NPR?
Did anybody do any research?
I was in China for 15 years.
I don’t think the Canadian woman, Ms Wong was ever in China in 1972
Anybody who was in Beijing in 1972 knows she wasn’t there.
I listen to must of the broadcast and it was difficult to understand how NPR let her on the air.
This is not first hand!
I am a big fan of NPR but…

Tom Ashbrook

What is Ms Wong going to do with her money? If she make any money.

I was listening to the program today. The one where supposedly a Canadian went to Beijing, China in 1972.

I challenge Ms Wong to a debate.

I truly think that this story, this book, was all hear say. Not an actual account of someone personal experience.

She heard many stories and wrote a fiction. Thats all!

Thanks

I think it would be interesting to know the ages of the people who are posting their comments. I would like to think that a more mature person who has lived a full life would be more understanding of mistakes made while one is young and impressionable. Who among us doesn’t remember making absolute statements of our beliefs when young, only to recall them at a later age and either cringe or laugh at our naivete? We should at least give the author credit for being willing to hear the abuse by the listeners.

I found this to be one of the most disingenuous and disturbing interviews I’ve heard in a long time. If Tom sounded merely accusatory, his tone was tame compared to the one swirling around my head. My 17 year old put it well. “This woman clearly has no remorse or ability to look at herself.” I believe her actions, but not her rational and litany of excuses.

Tom
I have to agree with most of the comments.
What will she do with the money?
Its great that she has admitted her mistake. But is this a true story???
Fred in Chinese the university, today, is called “BeiJing DaXue” and its nickname is “Beida”
The original location was called … well, you check it out. Since you were there.???
Yes, I also wonder if Ms Wong was there in 1972!
Perhaps she was so wrap up in trying to belong somewhere that she could see anything clearly.
Her story doesn’t add up.
Perhaps being on the radio was a little nerve racking. However, she didn’t sound rattle.
If there is a debate or a discussion in the future I would like to join it.
I have a lot of question, too.
I think this might clear up the issue as to whether she was there in 1972.
Rod

I don’t understand why so many of you make a big deal of Mr. Wong’s naive mistake. The women who approached her should have known what she is doing in her situation. I agree that she is wrongly victimized. But only because many people in China worked hard to build the country, instead like her – attracted by the income and refrigerators in US, that made China a better place to live today.

Many worked hard to get positioned in society, to have a higher position in Chinese society.
Working hard is questionable. At least until China changed to a more marketable society. With Chinese characteriztics. 
The previous working habits were quit bad. Show up for work. Put in a few hours and get out.
Not so different from United States companies. Especially the union operated. A guy show shows up, get his quoted done, pay the boss a $ and he own his way.
Yes, I did it China and my cousin has done here in the US. shame on both!
China is a better place because China has put behind the 35 years of chaos. The market driven system is paying off. Now my relative have everything that we have here in the US. Except a car. Cannot drive.
“Instead of like her” sounds naive. She wanted better herself in a time of political self power greed. From the leaders on down. I’m sure thats not what you met.
My problem with Ms Wong is
Sorry. Have to go

I found this interview extremely disturbing. Ms. Wong is insolent and still quick to blame everyone else in an attempt to allay her guilt for something that amounts to sending someone to the gallows. It seems she was unwilling to remember anything about this incident until it provided more material for her new book. She “experimented” with Maoism during her student days and left a woman’s life in ruins and then returned to happily re-embrace capitalism. I hope she does not sell one book. A very example she gives to any youth anywhere.

I found this interview extremely disturbing. Ms. Wong is insolent and still quick to blame everyone else in an attempt to allay her guilt for something that amounts to sending someone to the gallows. It seems she was unwilling to remember anything about this incident until it provided more material for her new book. She “experimented” with Maoism during her student days and left a woman’s life in ruins and then returned to happily re-embrace capitalism. I hope she does not sell one book. A sad example she gives to any youth anywhere.

Years from now… many college kids will find out messages like… “There is no problem we cannot solve, no destiny we cannot hope for”, “change we can believe in” or “Yes, we can” are changes they are thinking about.

Very interesting story Tom (and listeners)

some thoughts from a mixed (religious) Jewish perspective.

Jewish thought (and yes, even kaballah) discusses that :
1) people are all on a ladder of infinite length, where we are ALL on a different rung, then others.

2) We all seek (as our life) a special goal where we may not know the goal (mission) until it’s over (when we’re dead…, but our spirit (or soul) goes on to its next level.

3) Ethics are a key to life. My life, I attempt to personally, live this ethical spirit, and NOT harm others (shades of Google’s corporate model…)

In this hour of discussion, I am horrified at this curt, very callow decision made by a young student. It shocks me and makes me sick at the thought of what this woman did to the student 30 years ago.

It is also quite plausible that Jan managed to ‘forget’ or let it slip out of her memory the harm she did to this woman.

This having been said, I am quite heartened that she did choose to go back and search for this woman.

’nuff said. It’s been said that the tanach is known as life’s instruction manual.

like… when five thousand years ago, these guys came up with a rational system to make a lunar calendar, that complete with leap years, is STILL accurate today…

…

The real story is that she was manipulated into thinking that Mao was the answer to all man’s ills by her Professor at Toronto U.

Professors have been doing a lot of damage since the early 1900.

I hope activist professors will become a thing of the past, and soon.

I placed a call this morning hoping to have my comment heard, but was denied to be put on air.

I was appalled and disgusted by this story. This is the most selfish person I have encountered. All her actions (the comdemnation first, and the asking forgiveness thirty years later)were self centered, with absolutely no concern for the woman whose life she destoyed.
She makes a book out of it.
What a disgusting human being.

Tom Ashbrook let his bias run a bit unchecked in this interview. Normally, I look forward with happy anticipation to his show, but I was turned off by his harsh tones today.

Regarding the story, the lesson of truly recognizing and apologizing for one’s mistakes seems to me to be a positive, not negative, example to set for younger generations.

The story reminds me of the book Lord Of The Flies. Jan Wong was right, everyone in China was pretty much either a betrayer or betrayed at that time. It’s like a drop of water following the current in the ocean. I can understand how she was excited by the “Utopian” appearance of China in the 1970s. Like the kids in Lord of The Flies, Jan Wong was a victim of the society. I appreciate her effort and courage to find the women and apologize to her. Yes, we all make mistakes.

I did not hear an apologetic tone in Ms. Wong’s words. I heard her passing the blame and rejoicing that the woman whose life she helped ruin (after she herself returned to her prosperous life in the West) did not hold her accountable. She seemed happy to report that she was not the only one to report this young woman to the authorities.

I thought Mr. Ashbrook let her off the hook way too easily. If this were a German writing a book about turning in someone in to the Nazis, there would be public outcry.

Amazing story, too bad the interviewer’s tone was so critical of Ms. Wong. It is too easy to be horrified and blame and feel self righteous. The hard questions were too often cut short. This story is much more than a personal attack on a naive tragic mistake. But Mr. Ashbrook kept returning to push the “how could you!” question, which Ms. Wong kept answering over and over. Thus sidelining the interesting discussion/conversation I was craving. Sadly, not up to the NPR standard.

I have to say congratulations to Ms. Wong for trying to make her youthful mistake right!

I entirely disagree with those who blame her naive teenage self of the early 70’s for not making the kind of choice we would make as mature westerners.
The powerful evil is that of ideological purity; not of her youthful idealism which was blind to the perils of such absolutism.

Furthermore I think we all would be the wiser to acknowledge our universal human ability to act out of such blindness, and thus have compassion for those like Jan Wong and alertness to possibilities of being misled ourselves.

I think y’all ought to give Jan Wong a break. Starry-eyed foolishness regarding Mao and communism is barely gone, even now. Many, many intellectuals in the West were enraptured with Chinese communism.

The most relaible of these useful idiots were allowed in and after being led around by the nose — often with the intellectuals’ connivance — they published books that promoted the party’s view.

The same deal happened about 30 years earlier with Stalin’s Soviet Union. Turns out, there’s something about tyrannies that many intellectuals, especially lefties and progressives, love — see Mark Lilla’s “The Reckless Mind.”

Jan Myrdal’s China books are a prime example of this phonomenon, but there are dozens of others. William Hinton on the other hand was a true believer right from the start — he needed no guidance by the party.

Wong’s own “Red China Blues” is excellent — read it before you stomp all over her now. Then read any of Simon Leys’ books on China: “Chinese Shadows,” “Broken Images,” “The Burning Forest,” “The Chairman’s New Clothes.”

Oh, and if you’ve ever trimmed your speech (and your thoughts) to fit politicially correct notions, you’re in no position ever to point a finger at people who fall for mass political enthusiasms, in China or anywhere else.

At first I was repelled as others by what Jan Wong did.

Then I realized how many of us on the Left who were simply striving for peace during the 60s and 70s were, in effect, guilty of the same thing. After the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, we celebrated the communist victory, and then, because Communism represented the future utopia and we the capitalist imperialist hell, we refused to recognize the human rights abuses committed by the North Vietnamese government, refusing the calls among the peace movement to investigate those abuses, disbelieving even the peaceful Buddhist protesters who should have been our brethren, calling Thich Niht Hanh a CIA agent–Joan Baez even put out a full page ad in the New York Times calling some of us commie stooges.
In 1988 I visited China, and on my return my mother refused to believe that the Chinese were looking to the West for hope. To this day I see among many on the Left an unwillingness or inability to recognize that left wing governments are not always angelic, and America is not all capitalist imperial horror, at fault for all the world’s woes. Or that their own version of politically correct is, in effect, a mirror of what they despise.

I believe those posters/callers who accused Jane Wong have a very basic misunderstanding of human nature. You can not take someone action out of the context.

You don’t believe Cultural Revolution can happen in the US ? With the right environment, it can be replicated in every country and every culture. If you don’t believe in the histeria, think about why the US military has to relocate/anonymize the whistle blower of the Abu Grib prison scandal, the entire family, from its town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

I suggest the readers to read the book “Influence – the psychology of persuasion” before commenting on whether he or she is capable of doing the *right* thing.

Not understanding historical context, human nature and feeling of self-righteousness lays the exact ferment ground for future Cultural Revolution. It saddens me the most.

>The real story is that she was manipulated into >thinking that Mao was the answer to all man’s ills by >her Professor at Toronto U.

>Professors have been doing a lot of damage since the >early 1900.

>I hope activist professors will become a thing of the >past, and soon.

Yes, and pretty soon, people will realize the ludicrousness of capitalism as the answer to all man’s ills, as pointed out by John Bogle long time ago in his The Battle for the Soule of capitalism, and currently in broad display in the crisis.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09282007/transcript1.html

Wong seems very superficial even 35 years later, and I think an opportunist attention seeker. It really sounds like an exaggerated story.

Jan Wong profited twice from this sordid tale: once when she reported this poor woman (I’m sure the Red Guards put a gold star next to Wong’s name) and when she published this book. Tom Ashcroft did nothing but lob softball questions at her and ignored the moral issues (which he does except when it suits him). All he did was fall all over her because he personally had known at the Globe 25 years ago.

Her comments about the Red Guard in Tibet being comprised of local Tibetans who burned and killed was especially reprehensible. Sound like she is blaming the Tibetas for attempting to detroy their own culture.

This “interview” was disgusting.

A few words from Confucius: “I can always learn from those I am with: there will be good qualities I can select for imitation, and bad things which will teach me what require perfection in myself.” To those vilifying the author, I’m learning nothing worth emulating from your diatribes. I wonder if you listened to the author.

Peking University IS Beijing University–these are just 2 different ways of spelling, or of “romanizing,” the same place. Beijing is what the place sounds like, which is why it’s now preferred.

I am also from Montreal and was a student at that time at McGill. While Ms Wong talks of radical Canada, it was Quebec that was particularly radical. At that time the FLQ a radical terrorist group kidnapped a British diplomat, kidnapped and killed a Quebec politician, and brought Canada to its knees. Democracy was on hold in Canada with the War Measures Act. Troops were everywhere in Montreal. Yet no discussion of this by the author was made as to whether this influenced her decision to be enraptured by the seemingly relatively “peaceful” Maosists.

Hearing the callers’ question of why Jane Wang could do such a thing, coming from the “free world” – I really laughed at the naivety and self-righteousness of Americans.

Perhaps let’s turn it around, try to imagine Chinese question Lu Yi (who was the victim in the story and asked to leave for US and thus got into the trouble:

“You are educated in China, and you should and could have known better. How could you do such a thing [to ask for help going to the US, our archenemy] ?”

People! Such a stupid question is EXACTLY why China had Cultural Revolution and you are also doomed to have your own “Cultural Revolution”!

This is the saddest thing I learned from this show.

Gerald Boggs’ comment at the top expressed exactly the feeling that I had while listening to the interview with Ms. Wong. She seemed completely nonchalant about the repercussions of what she did, even despite the fact that she just wrote an entire book on it. The idea that she is profiting from the act is absolutely reprehensible and should only be considered decent if she gives the profits to her victim.

This just goes to show you what happens in a society that uses moral relativism as a touch stone. Can all really be forgiven if one uses the excuse of being young and naive? Her actions then and now are repugnant and devoid of any moral center. A true case of the end justifies the means. After all her career is on the skids and she thrives on controversy.
No thanks, I’ll just reread “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” and suggest she do the same.