One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of seven generations of the Buendía family, founders of the fictional town of Macondo. The novel spans a hundred years of turbulent Latin American history, from the postcolonial 1820s to the 1920s. It is a tale of love, loss, and the cyclical nature of history, filled with magical realism that blends the supernatural with the ordinary. The story follows the family's experiences, including civil war, marriages, births, and deaths, and explores themes such as solitude, fate, and the inevitability of repetition in history. The novel is renowned for its narrative style and its influence on the literary movement known as the Latin American Boom[1][4][5].
In this memoir, Connie Chung delves into her career as a trailblazing journalist, describing her experiences as an Asian woman in a predominantly white, male-dominated industry. She recounts her early days at a local TV station in Washington, D.C., her work at CBS News, and her historic achievement as the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News. Chung shares behind-the-scenes stories of her career, including battles with sexism and racism, notable reporting assignments like the Watergate scandal, and her personal life, including her relationship with her husband Maury Povich and the adoption of their son. The memoir is marked by Chung's trademark wit, sharp insights, and candid storytelling.
The novel follows Tita de la Garza, the youngest daughter of the de la Garza family, who is forbidden to marry her beloved Pedro due to a family tradition. Pedro marries Tita's sister Rosaura instead, but his love for Tita remains strong. The story is told through twelve chapters, each representing a month of the year and including a Mexican recipe that correlates with the events in Tita's life. The novel explores themes of love, longing, and the power of food, set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution. Esquivel employs magical realism to combine the supernatural with the ordinary, creating a bittersweet tale of love and loss[1][2][5].
This week on Sinica, I speak with Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, both investigative reporters at the New York Times, about a series of stories they've done, stretching between August and December 2024, on the Falun Gong-run performance troupe Shen Yun, and the Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper The Epoch Times. Read the latest two articles in that series here and here. There will be links to the other stories on the transcript page.
4:33 – Nicole and Michael's collection of pieces on Falun Gong
6:26 – Background on [the?] Falun Gong: Li Hongzhi, the context out of which the movement emerged, its international spread, and the CCP’s crackdown in the '90s
12:00 – Shen Yun performances, and audience reactions
18:46 – Following the money: Falun Gong’s dramatic financial growth, gray areas, and where the money goes
29:03 – Spiritual project or big grift?
31:39 – What Nicole and Michael uncovered
36:23 – Memorable individuals: Chang Chun-ko, Kate the performer, and Josh the violinist
41:10 – The dynamics within [the?] Falun Gong, and what has been alleged
45:34 – The Epoch Times, and their editorial changes
53:02 – The appeal of Falun Gong, and the level of scrutiny it gets
Paying It Forward:
Nicole: Researchers/freelancers/translators Yi Liu and Peiyue Wu
Michael: New York Times colleague Susan Beachy
Recommendations:
Nicole: Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung
Michael: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and the new One Hundred Years of Solitude TV series (2024)); and the TV series Gomorrah (2014-2021)
Kaiser: TikTok accounts workplace_doodles (a former Shen Yun performer born into a Falun Gong family) and cocolarkincooks (a fantastic cooking resource)
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