Li, Laura Tyson 1963(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1963, in San Francisco, CA; married; two children. Education: Dartmouth College, B.A., 1985.

ADDRESSES: Home— New York, NY. Agent— Elizabeth Sheinkman, Elaine Markson Literary Agency, 44 Greenwich Ave., New York, NY 10011. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Journalist. South China Morning Post, former business reporter;Financial Times, Taiwan correspondent, 1994-98.

WRITINGS

Madame Chiang Kai-Shek: China’s Eternal First Lady, Atlantic Monthly (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to publications, including the Economist.

SIDELIGHTS: Laura Tyson Li was raised in Cornwall, Connecticut, and went on to major in East Asian Studies at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. From there, she moved to Asia, where she spent a decade studying and working in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She served as a business reporter for the South China Morning Post and the Taiwan correspondent for the Financial Times. Eventually, Li returned to the United States, where she settled in New York City with her husband and daughter, and began concentrating on her first book. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek: China’s Eternal First Lady, a biography, is the result of Li’s longtime interest in the woman. She first wrote about her for the weekend section of the Financial Times when Madame was celebrating her one hundredth birthday in 1997. Li was captivated by the varying opinions people held regarding the woman, even after she had been living abroad for decades. Donna Seaman, writing for Booklist, remarked: “Li brilliantly analyzes a fearless and profoundly conflicted woman of extraordinary force.” A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called the book “a well-balanced biography of one of the most powerful women in Chinese history” and “an interesting and detailed account.” A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the book to be “a well-researched, fluently written assessment.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2006, Donna Seaman, review of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek: China’s Eternal First Lady, p. 28.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2006, review of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, p. 619.

Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2006, review of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.

Publishers Weekly, May 22, 2006, review of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, p. 41.

ONLINE

Daily Record Online, http://www.dailyrecord.com/ (January 19, 2006), Meredith Napolitano, “A Dragon Lady’s Life.”

Laura Tyson Li Home Page, http://www.lauratysonli.com (March 14, 2007).