Moying Li
Publications
Moying Li is twelve years old when the Cultural Revolution sweeps across China. Studying at a prestigious language school in Beijing, she seems destined for a promising future. But everything changes when student Red Guards orchestrate brutal assaults, public humiliations, and forced confessions throughout the country. After watching her headmasters beaten in public, Moying flees school for the safety of home, only to find her beloved grandmother denounced, her house ransacked, and her baba taken away—along with his precious books. Struggling to make sense of her crumbling world, she finds sanctuary in literature. In spare, evocative prose, this inspiring memoir illustrates a dark time in China’s history as it tells the compelling story of one girl’s difficult but determined coming-of-age.
Since Boston’s legendary Beacon Hill was first settled nearly four hundred years ago, the neighborhood’s spirited residents, generation after generation, have created and maintained a unique environment that is both timeless and forward-thinking. They have responded to social, economic, and political changes over the centuries by integrating the best legacies of the Hill’s past into plans for the community’s future growth and vitality.
In this well-crafted and lavishly illustrated work, Moying Li takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the historic yet vibrant district of cobblestone streets, redbrick sidewalks, gas lamps, and elegant Bulfinch architecture. Weaving together the personal reminiscences of dwellers with compelling narrative, she captures the essence of this special community in the heart of Boston.
About Moying
An award-winning author, Moying Li grew up in China during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution (1966-1967). During that period, she was primarily self-taught, following the guided lessons and reading lists her father, who had been a prominent screenwriter, was able to send to her from a “hard labor farm.” In 1980, thanks to a generous scholarship and a plane ticket from Swarthmore College, Moying traveled to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies. One of the first private scholarship students from China since the Cultural Revolution to attend a U.S. college, Moying earned an MA from Swarthmore College, an MBA and a Ph. D. from Boston University.
Reading and writing have always been close to her heart. Moying started publishing short stories and articles while still a college student in China. Her first book, “Beacon Hill: The Life and Times of a Neighborhood,” (Northeastern University Press) won the Julia Ward Howe Award for nonfiction. Her second book, “Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) was named “Editor’s Choice” by The New York Times Book Review as well as “Editor’s Favorites” by Bloomsburg Review. It is also the winner of Massachusetts Center for the Books Award for nonfiction. Her third book, a biography of the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. during WWII, will be published by Oxford University Press in 2027.