季風人文講壇第79期：Vivian Ling

Interview with Vivian Ling on Love Without Borders –a Sino-US Collaborated Book About International Adoptions of Chinese Orphans 

with Vivian Ling & Michael Laris

October 30, 2025｜In English

30 years ago, China and the US were in a honeymoon. It was a good time for Americans to be in China, whether they were businessmen, consultants, journalists, scholars, or tourists. In 1998, the American President Bill Clinton was welcomed to China by the Chinese president Jiang Zemin. The two of them walked side-by-side across Tiananmen Square, before a throng of people from around the world. Meanwhile, China’s internal one-child policy brought on an unintended consequence – a surge in orphans, mostly girls. Many were adopted abroad, over half of them by Americans. Eventually, about 86,000 Chinese children joined American families. Today, US-China relations has taken a 180-degree turn, international adoption has become controversial, and China has terminated the adoption program. In the current era of geopolitical tension, an American academic collaborated with a Chinese author to produce Love Without Borders, to shine a light on a bright spot in US-China relations. The book is unique in presenting both the Chinese and Western perspectives.

About the Speaker 

Vivian Ling was born in wartime China, educated in the U.S., and had an academic career in the US and China. Through her Chinese language teaching and management of language/cultural immersion programs for American students in China, she devoted herself to building bridges of dialogue between the peoples of the world’s two superpowers. Love Without Borders exemplifies a candid conversation between people on two sides of a divide about a controversial, sensitive, and highly personal topic. Her prodigious publications include the historical compendium The Field of Chinese Language Education in the U.S.: A Retrospective of the 20th Century. In recent years, she has turned her attention to publishing popular works on Chinese folklore and traditions for a global audience young and old.

Michael Laris began his long career in journalism as an undergraduate at Stanford University. In the years 1993-2000, he continued his mode of studying-while-reporting in Beijing. Since 2000, he has been a staff writer at the Washington Post, currently focusing on in-depth human-interest stories. To friends and family, he is best known for his culinary art.