(Radio Iowa) – The author of a new book contrasting first-hand accounts of China in the 1980s versus the modern era will be in Des Moines for an event tonight (Monday). Patti Isaacs first visited China in 1981 on a one-year contract to teach English at a small university, and people were still wearing uniform clothing during the last days of communism. Twenty-four years later, Isaacs returned to that same university to teach English — and to do research for her book, “The Second Long March, Memoir from a Witness to China’s Transformation.”

She says the changes were astonishing between 1981 and 2005, as high rises and a high-tech zone had sprung up. Isaacs says the book aims to dispell stereotypes and provide stories of “regular people” in China. She says national pride is growing for some, while others feel modernization robbed China of its soul.