Selection of tributes to Li Xing

Raymond Zhou

I called her Madame Li - behind her back. She deserved this title. Here in China, we reserve "Madame" for the very few women who command respect and love.

It was a blessing to work with Li Xing. She was the ultimate professional. Her hard-working ethics set the bar very high for her peers. Her output was simply amazing. One could hardly believe she had only one colleague with her when she reported from the Cancun conference. The quantity and quality of the stories, photos and videos she filed would have made you believe she had a sizable team there.

Yet, she was not overbearing at all. In the newsroom she was friendly to every one. She would share small souvenirs from her frequent foreign trips. She would share her family stories with us over lunch. Even when she was not working in Features depeartment, she would often come by and chat with us. She was someone we all looked up to. In a sense, she was like a big sister to us all.

I would address her as "Li Xing Laoshi" (teacher) and at first it made her a little uncomfortable. Then she probably realized I meant it. She taught us so much - and without a trace of condescension.

I'll always miss her.

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Chen Liang

Li Xing is gone. She was my boss and has always been my mentor and friend. I have wanted to cry since Friday, but failed - too many memories have been flooding into my head. Many of them are so pleasant that are painful to think about.

I tried to calculate how many great trips of mine were from her, 40 days in Tibet, one year in Yunnan, 20-day adventure in Modog and a fellowship in Thailand (which produced three nice trips in Southeast Asia). But it's impossible because I was the paper's most-travelled man (which I enjoyed and thanks a lot) while she was head of Feature.

I tried to figure out by which assignment she managed to turn me into an "expert" of paleontology or wildlife. At the beginning, I was reluctant to be but gradually, have become a more confident journalist. Those days many of my fellows in Feature were "experts" in one or two fields in her endorsement and have turned their "expertise" into life-time passions. So you see, she could be an excellent boss even though she seemed to prefer to write and edit than manage.

I tried to recall the tastes of the Russian soup she prepared for our gatherings at her apartment (which was rich and delicious but well, unhealthy), and the fried chops of pillow-sized zongzi from her mom's hometown in Guangxi, and then realized that they could only be tasted in memory now.

I tried hard to remember which computer game I enjoyed a lot was introduced by her. Age of Empire, probably. Starcraft, definitely not, because I still remember she said it "too complicated and time-consuming". While several of us played during the lunch break, she just watched, sometimes.

I failed to remember the titles of a series of three books about a Mossad assassin I borrowed from her. After reading those books, reading English thrillers has become one of my hobbies. I do remember my first John Grisham book from her, The Last Juror, because he has since become one of my favorite thriller writers.

In the past two days, I searched my computers and albums to find some photos I took of her, but surprisingly got nothing. How come? I ponder.

Well, probably it's because during the years, I have already considered her a familiar part of my life. Hello, chat, lunch or dinner. You feel certain that she was always there and could offer you a hand when you need, until...

Thanks, Li Xing and Good Bye!

In Honor of Li Xing (a friend for too short a period of time)

On behalf of the Phelps ACE High School Washington, DC I would like to express our deep sorrow to the family and colleagues of Ms. Li Xing. I was only able to know her for a short period of time, but in that small moment of time, I was able to learn of her passion for her work; the professionalism of her practice, and her creative ability to pull my best thoughts out of me. But most of all, she inspired and encouraged my interest in helping our students to grow in their appreciation and learning of the history, culture and language of China. We are all less rich today because her passing represents a loss of an important bridge between two nations. These two nations must come together if we are to solve the many problems that threatened the well being of our mutual home-Planet Earth. We are however forever rich because of a legacy that will be celebrated forever by the members of our school family. Li Xing, thank you for being a bridge of understanding between our students and the people of China.

Michael A. Johnson, Principal

Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School-Washington, DC

Graduate student from University of Iowa:

I met Li Xing when I was a graduate student in journalism at the University of Iowa. In fact, she and I were both overnight guests at Professor Judy Polumbaum's house. I found Li Xing to be a warm and curious person--interested in learning about the world around her, and eager to share what she learned with others.

Two experiences we shared in Iowa were especially memorable:

1) an early morning exploration of the damage caused by an overnight tornado in Iowa City. We got up at the break of dawn and beat most of the media to the sites of the worst devastation. We enjoyed hanging out with them once they did arrive.

2) a day spent visiting Amish farms and shops in the countryside near Kalona, Iowa--the largest U.S. Amish population west of the Mississippi River. A few weeks earlier, I had spent a week interviewing many Amish for a story on their reaction to a new casino in their community. The normally reticent Amish welcomed me into their homes and expressed their concerns about the casino. When I came back with Li Xing, they were equally welcoming to her.

After Li Xing returned to China, we stayed in touch. In fact, she invited me to write an article for China Daily about my Fulbright year in the Canadian Arctic.

Li Xing lived life to the fullest, and we will all miss her radiant spirit, industriousness and deep humanity. I especially send heartfelt sympathies to her daughter Weisi and husband Sun Chenbei. It was a privilege to share some small part of Li Xing's amazing life.

I first met Li Xing in early April 2006 when, as part of advance party to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's India visit, she had come to New Delhi and met large number of people in the city. I was elated to see that she used few quotations from my conversations in her front page stories in China Daily. This is how our friendship started. She encouraged me to contribute to China Daily and we were often able to share rather frank discussions on various issues, including those that could not be printed. Her insightful responses really helped my understanding of contemporary China. We last met when I was in Fudan University as Visiting Professor for five weeks during summer of 2010 and she was visiting Shanghai briefly. We met for another long conversation over Lunch. She was accompanied by another young journalist and we talked about our families and communities, and everything. I was often awed by her energy and her capacity to write long and and thoughtfull pieces; she was so often writ large visible in China Daily pieces. She was amazingly incisive in her analysis and that brought faith in Chinese media and journlism. I was shocked to see her face on front page and almost read the title of that box item several times, in disblief. I still can not imagine that Li Xing is no more...