The new issue of The Iowa Review includes my true tale of being attacked on a bus in Sichuan shortly after first arriving in China. This story will lead a work-in-progress collection I’ve tentatively titled China 2, or China — The Sequel!

In Manchuria won a 2015 Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Book. Judging was done by the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, and announced at the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. From the judge’s citation:

“Michael Meyer immersed himself in an important geographic area rarely studied in depth by Western journalists or anybody else with Western values. Rural China is enormously important within the Chinese empire, and also for the rest of the world as that empire expands its influence. Meyer’s avoidance of the much-documented urban China in favor of understanding the rural populace is refreshing.”

Here’s an excerpt from Foreign Policy about how Puyi would still recognize a great deal of Changchun, the erstwhile capital of Manchukuo.

And, in a major announcement that received little coverage, farmers in two pilot programs, including in dongbei, will be allowed to use their land as collateral.

Writing a book is like building a boat, right down to the “launch” that takes both away from you. Every now and then, the boat passes by, and someone says, “Hey, nice boat!” or cracks that it’s a piece of junk — to which the builder thinks, “Well, it still floats!” Regardless, it’s always surprising to see where the thing turns up. Recently, it’s India, where In Manchuria was a “Hot Pick” in the Hindustan Times, and is reviewed in the Times of India, the Financial Express, and the Business Standard. The latter concludes: “In Manchuria becomes a study in transience, solitude and also of a family. Read it for an inroad into one of the many grey regions of history.”

Now that Singapore’s 50th birthday has come and gone, attention at my desk here has turned the 70th anniversary of WWII’s end. Here’s an excerpt on the Japanese settlers abandoned by their military in deep Manchuria, whose children were adopted by Chinese farmers. Here’s (and here, as PDF) an excerpt on the daring liberation of a POW camp in Shenyang. Also on the Wall Street Journal‘s site is this interesting 12-minute documentary on how Manchukuo’s history continues to influence Sino-Japanese relations.

Here’s the schedule for the AWF, running from September 11-14, featuring poet Tina Chang, novelist Adam Johnson, playwright Rajiv Joseph and myself.

This flattering TLS review is by historian James H. Carter, whose book Creating a Chinese Harbin: Nationalism in an International City, 1916-1932 first inspired me to look just below the surface of contemporary Manchuria, and search for the historical remnants still visible there, even if ignored or forgotten.