Goshen Public Library to host authors for book reading on teaching in 1980s China

Goshen Public Library is pleased to host co-authors and Goshen College alumni Fran Martens Friesen and Mary Ann Zehr. The event, scheduled for Saturday, October 5 at 11 a.m., will include a book reading and a Q&A session.

In their book, Doors Cracked Open: Teaching in a Chinese Closed City, Martens Friesen and Zehr write about being English teachers in China in the 1980s, when China was reopening to the West. They suggest that people-to-people exchanges such as the one they participated in are very much needed today.

The authors have worked as writing faculty for Fresno Pacific University and Eastern Mennonite University. Cindy Hartzler-Miller, a retired education professor and current Goshen Public Library employee, will moderate the book talk.

“This book is rich with description and full of fascinating—and sometimes awkward—cross-cultural encounters between the American authors and their Chinese students,” said Hartzler-Miller. “I was thoroughly engaged and read it in one sitting.” 

The event will take place in the GPL Auditorium and is free and open to the public.