Fewer than four decades ago, an emerging China joined its first Olympic Games. Like today, geopolitics loomed large at the Los Angeles event. Members of the Chinese Olympic team line up before the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, 28 July...
Ping-pong players paved the way for a thaw in relations between China and the U.S. in the early 1970s. I witnessed this pivotal moment in history. Flanked by Chinese border officials, Glen Cowan, a member of the U.S. ping-pong team, waves to newsmen at Lowu, China,...
News Decoder’s correspondents have covered many of the biggest international stories of the past half-century, offering our students an unparalleled historical perspective on complex global events. Jonathan Sharp has tapped his rich professional adventures time and again for News Decoder, producing yarns about covering the Vietnam War and showing U.S. actress Shirley MacLaine around Beijing. In his latest article, Sharp recounts witnessing a pivotal moment in China-U.S. relations in 1971, when a team of U.S. ping-pong players visited China, paving the way to a thaw in relations between the two nations. Sharp skillfully mixes personal anecdotes with an impartial look at history to transport students born more than a generation after the “transformative moment” back in time.
Exercise: Ask each of your students to speak to at least one parent to identify a moment in their youth when they witnessed an important event. After interviewing the parent, the student should write an article mixing the parent’s viewpoint in the first person with third-person background and explanation.
Good journalists try to remain neutral. I once hopped on a U.S. military helicopter during the Vietnam War. Had I abandoned my principles? U.S. troops during Operation Lam Son 719, February 1971. This photo was on the last roll of film received from Associated Press...
When I arrived in Hong Kong half a century ago, it was just starting its explosive growth. Now it’s caught again in the middle of a big-power dispute. Before Hong Kong’s old airport closed in 1998, it had just one runway, and airliners used to skim low...
Hong Kong youth are protesting again against the city’s rulers in China. The stakes are sky-high for the world’s economy and, potentially, security. A protester in Hong Kong, China, 24 May 2020 (EPA-EFE/JEROME FAVRE) Is capitalist, free-wheeling Hong Kong...