Moying Li was born and raised in Beijing, China. In 1980, with a scholarship and a plane ticket from Swarthmore College, she came to the United States to pursue graduate studies. One of the first private-scholarship students to leave China since 1949, she earned an M. A. from Swarthmore College, and an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. from Boston University.

            Her first book, Beacon Hill: The Life & Times of a Neighborhood, published by Northeastern University Press, won first prize, the Julia Ward Howe Award, given by the Boston Authors Club, one of the oldest literary organizations in America.

            Her second book, Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China during the Cultural Revolution, a memoir, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, won numerous awards and recognitions, including: Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review, the Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction, Editor’s Favorites by Bloomsbury Review, and the Best Memoir by Scholastic.

            Her forthcoming book, Hu Shi—A Biography, to be published by Oxford University Press in February 2027, recounts the dramatic life of China’s ambassador to the United States during the early stages of WWII. Educated at Cornell and Columbia universities and deeply affected by the ethos of America’s Progressive Era, as well as the influence of philosopher, John Dewey, Hu Shi became the “father” of a language and cultural reform in the early 20th century that was considered the Chinese Renaissance. When the war between China and Japan began, he was appointed Ambassador to the U. S. Reluctantly, he accepted the position, having vowed never to work for the Chinese government or to join any political party since his early years. An effective and popular diplomat, Hu Shi helped forge an alliance between the two countries at a critical moment in world history.

            Moying skillfully weaves Hu Shi’s personal story into the unfolding drama of the global theater, and explains how, caught in between worlds and living in the cusp of two cultures, he navigates his way through it. The first of its kind in the English language, Moying tries to revitalize a historical figure who has become even more relevant now that many regions in the world are once again aflame.