WildChina Book Club:
Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China by Jen Lin-Liu (Event #86)
For our August book club, we’re reading Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China in preparation for our chat with the author, and Black Sesame Kitchen founder, Jen Lin-Liu.
“As a freelance journalist and food writer living in Beijing, Jen Lin-Liu already had a ringside seat for China’s exploding food scene. When she decided to enroll in a local cooking school–held in an unheated classroom with nary a measuring cup in sight–she jumped into the ring herself.
Progressing from cooking student to noodle-stall and dumpling-house apprentice to intern at a chic Shanghai restaurant, she finds poor young men and women streaming in from the provinces in search of a “rice bowl” (living wage); a burgeoning urban middle class hungry for luxury after decades of turmoil and privation; and the mentors who take her in hand in the kitchen and beyond.
Together they present an unforgettable slice of contemporary China in the full swing of social and economic transformation.”
Speaker for Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China
Jen Lin-Liu
Host
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Mei ZhangFounder and CEO of WildChinaMei Zhang is the founder and CEO of WildChina. Under her leadership, WildChina flourished from a small Hutong operation into an award-winning business. Mei’s own expertise has led her to win a number of personal awards, including Travel and Leisure’s A-List of Top Travel Advisors, Condé Nast Traveler’s Top Travel Specialist, and Wendy Perrin’s #WOW List of Travel Experts. Mei is an Aspen Institute China Fellow and currently serves as a member of Harvard Business School’s Alumni Board.