Hey, it's Empire's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. A super common way reporters approach

a story is, in short, using the micro to tell the macro, that is using one small story

as an example of the bigger thing you're writing about. And in today's book, New York Times

diplomatic correspondent Edward Wong does just that.

His book is titled At the Edge of Empire, and it's a survey of the modern history of China.

Of course, that's the huge macro story, but the vehicle he uses to tell it is the story of his own

family, mainly about his father. In this interview, Edward Wong tells NPR's Mayor Louise Kelly

about how his dad was once a patriotic citizen of China, but ended up feeling so disillusioned

that he left for America. But also about why it's important not to conflate a country's government

with the attitudes of its people. That's ahead.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

I am the son of two empires.

That's a line from early in the new memoir by New York Times reporter Edward Wong. Wong was born in

one empire here in the United States, grew up in D.C.'s northern Virginia suburbs in the 1970s and

80s. Wong's parents were born in China. His father was in the first class from his high school

to graduate into a China governed by the Communist Party in 1950.

The book is an attempt to tell two stories and how they intertwine, the story of Wong's family and the story of modern China.

It's titled at the Edge of Empire.

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