Annual Meeting with Keynote Speaker
Washington Post journalist and author John Pomfret

Photo courtesy Art Streiber

John Pomfret is a reporter for The Washington Post. Formerly the Post's Beijing bureau chief, he is now the Los Angeles bureau chief.

As a 20 year old exchange student from Stanford University, Pomfret spent a year at Nanjing University in China. His fellow classmates were among those who survived the twin tragedies of Mao's rule, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, and whose success in government and private industry will come to define the country's future. On the occasion of the 20th reunion of his Nanjing class, he decided to reacquaint himself with his classmates. Chinese Lessons is their story and his own.

Chinese Lessons takes us back to the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982. As we watch Pomfret and his classmates begin to make their adult lives, we see as never before the human cost of China's transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism.

"In this intimate and revealing book, John Pomfret shows why he is one of the great China correspondents of his generation: He has never held himself at a distance, but has plunged in, with vigor and an open mind. His approach to China has no tint of romanticism or awe; the lives he discovers and the stories he tells, including his own, are unvarnished, unexpected, and riveting."
—Steve Coll, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars.

Hi Hat Seven Course Banquet Menu:

• Appetizer Plate: assorted meats, jelly fish, pickled vegetables
• Snow flower Seafood Soup
• Honey Walnut Prawns
• Abalone Mushrooms on bed of Chinese Mustard Greens
• Crispy Chicken
• Dry Sauteed Green Beans
• Seafood in Taro Basket
• White rice & tea
  

WHEN	Thursday evening, October 19, 2006 6-6:30: no-host cocktails; 6:30: opening remarks, NWCC President; 6:45: Talk by Mr. Pomfret (with appetizers); 7:30: Banquet dinner.
WHERE	Hi Hat Restaurant -- Banquet Room, 11530 SW Pacific Hwy., Portland, OR 97223 View map: http://maps.citysearch.com/location/8480584
DIRECTIONS	Only about 8 minutes from downtown Portland. Take I-5 South, then Exit 294 (Tigard/Newberg). Continue down Pacific Hwy. (Barbur Blvd) 1/3 mile to Hi Hat on the left.
COST	$30/members $35/general
REGISTER	On-line Registration (click here), or RSVP to NWCC at 503-973-5451 by October 17 or send check payable to NWCC, 127 NW 3rd Ave. PDX 97209.