For immediate release · New York · October 18, 2026
New Chinese-Language Memoir 我与纽约 Chronicles Twenty Years of Becoming Oneself in America
Shenzhan Liao’s new book traces her journey from a small town in Chongqing to New York — and the making of a life between two cultures.
Becoming oneself is a long journey.
In her new Chinese-language book, 我与纽约：一个普通人的留美二十年 (My New York: An Ordinary Person’s Twenty Years in America), published on July 4, 2026, Shenzhan Liao (廖申展) looks back on more than two decades in America — from arriving in New York as a young Chinese student in 2002 to building a career, a home, relationships, and a life of her own.
Published in Simplified Chinese, the book is part memoir and part collection of personal essays chronicling Liao’s journey from Rongchang, a small town in Chongqing, southwestern China, to New York, where she pursued her education, matured, and gradually found her place in a city and country that were initially foreign to her.
Rather than a story of extraordinary achievement, Liao deliberately writes from the perspective of an ordinary person. Through vividly textured accounts of study, work, friendship, relationships, home-building, and everyday encounters, she explores the uncertainties, challenges, and discoveries that accompany growing into oneself far from home.
At the heart of the book is a simple idea: while every life is particular, the experience of searching for who we are is universal.
“This is the story of an ordinary Chinese student’s coming of age in the United States,” Liao writes, “yet many readers may recognize a part of themselves in it.”
New York provides both the setting and the emotional landscape of that journey. Over the course of two decades, the city changes from an unfamiliar destination into home. The places and people Liao encounters along the way become markers of a deeper transformation — of learning to live independently, navigate between cultures, and ultimately define a life on one’s own terms.
The personal story also unfolds against a larger historical backdrop. Liao left China at the beginning of a period of extraordinary globalization and expanding exchange between China and the United States. Over the following two decades, China changed dramatically, as did America and the relationship between the two countries.
我与纽约 does not attempt to tell that history from above. Instead, it offers one individual’s perspective as a footnote to an era ultimately composed of countless personal lives. At its heart is Liao’s belief that the life of an ordinary person is no less worthy of being told: each carries a unique record of its time and, in its own way, becomes part of history.
For readers who have left home, crossed cultures, started over somewhere unfamiliar, or simply looked back and wondered how they became the person they are today, 我与纽约 offers an intimate reflection on the long and often unexpected journey of becoming oneself.
An English translation of the book is planned for publication in 2027.
About the Author
Shenzhan Liao (廖申展) grew up in Rongchang, Chongqing, China. She studied at Beijing Normal University before coming to New York in 2002 and later continued her education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has lived in New York for more than two decades and has worked in education and cultural exchange since 2008.
我与纽约：一个普通人的留美二十年 (My New York: An Ordinary Person’s Twenty Years in America) is her reflection on those years and on the people, places, choices, and experiences that shaped her journey from China to New York.