This program originally aired June 20, 2019.
You know the voice of Tom's guest today from his superb reporting for NPR from Great Britain. Before his assignment in London, Frank Langfitt was NPR’s China correspondent for five years. In the late 90s and early aughts, Frank also covered China for the Baltimore Sun.
If you listened to Frank’s dispatches from China from 2011-2016, you may recall his occasional series called Streets of Shanghai, in which he introduced us to some of the people he met. The way he devised to meet them is ingenious.
In exchange for conversations with everyday Chinese folks, Frank offered them free cab rides, and he has compiled some of the results of these wide-ranging and revelatory conversations in a new book. It’s called The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China.
We livestreamed this conversation on WYPR's Facebook page. Click here to watch.
