NPR correspondent Rob Gifford speaks about China’s future

Rob Gifford, NPR’s Shanghai correspondent, spoke at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Sept. 20 at 5:30 p.m.

Gifford discussed “China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power,” based on his book of the same name.

Gifford first went to China in 1987 as a 22-year-old language student. He returned as NPR’s Beijing correspondent from 1999-2005, and traveled all over China and Asia reporting for “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” He was NPR’s London correspondent from 2005 until he recently returned to China as Shanghai correspondent.

His 2007 book tells of his 3,000-mile odyssey across China. He followed Route 312, the country's equivalent of U.S. Route 66, from Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. A fluent Mandarin speaker, Gifford explored and spoke with people in the factory towns of the coastal areas, in the rural heart of China and in the Gobi Desert. The book describes the social and economic changes that are transforming China and, as one reviewer wrote, is “full of historical and philosophical wisdom about the future of the world’s largest country.”

Gifford has reported from around the world for NPR. He was born and raised in the U.K. where he worked at BBC World Service. He holds a BA in Chinese Studies from Durham University in the U.K. and an MA in regional studies (East Asia) from Harvard University.

His talk was sponsored by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Kenan-Flagler Business School, UNC’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, UNC Global, the Office of the Provost, the Phillips Ambassadors, the Center for Global Initiatives, and the Carolina Asia Center.

The free, public talk was held at the FedEx Global Education Center, which is located on the corner of Pittsboro and McCauley Streets on the UNC campus.