China Seminar | 13 February 2003

Beijing's Catch-22s: Real Life in the Capital of Contemporary China

LIN Zhishen LIN Zhishen

At the start of the Lunar New Year, the China Seminar also begins its twenty-eighth year and welcomes to its speaker’s rostrum a young journalist from China. Lin Zhishen, also known as Frank Lin, has been a resident of Beijing for the last ten years and is a keen observer of the many dramatic changes in Beijing and throughout China. His subject should be of considerable appeal to all who are interested in everyday life in China.

Mr. Lin has been an editor for seven years at Xinhua News Agency, the largest and one of the most influential media organizations in China. A graduate of Zhengzhou University in central Henan province in 1993 with a major in English language and literature, Mr. Lin went on to receive another bachelor’s degree in international journalism from the Chinese School of Journalism in Beijing. Since August of 2002, Mr. Lin has been a visiting scholar at the University of Hawaii, participating in the Parvin/Freedom Forum Journalism Studies Fellowship Program.