Anthony Tao
We Met in Beijing
Introduced by Kaiser Kuo
Beijing is a city of multitudes, filled with contradictions and constantly in flux. It is a place for dreamers and schemers, musicians and migrant workers, techies and teachers, cat ladies and cab drivers — and at the same time, a place for none of them, a seat of power that can feel unwelcoming and closed.
There are few people better situated to provide a snapshot of contemporary Beijing than Anthony Tao, who was born in this city. He grew up in the US before returning in 2008 as a journalist to cover the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. He has stayed ever since, tracking the changes — big and small — that have shaped China and its residents.
We Met in Beijing, Tao’s debut collection, is an account of trying to set down roots in a Chinese metropolis, evoking the elements that make Beijing the dynamic, unique city that it is, full of tree-lined streets, dusty alleys, mirthful canals, fashionable rooftops, and sweaty nightclubs. It is also a profile of a political and cultural nerve centre — astute watchers of China news will know the headlines, but We Met in Beijing gives readers a rare on-the-ground perspective.
The title poem is a tribute to community — specifically, the bars and clubs that have acted as meeting points for an array of people — and an acknowledgment that the only constant in Beijing is change. The vast majority of foreigners who set foot in Beijing do so temporarily, but accepting this transience opens the way for intense and unforgettable experiences.
Publication date 4 November 2025
128 pages | 978-1-0685257-5-9 | Paperback
Early praise for We Met in Beijing
“Anthony Tao has become the Poet Laureate of Beijing. His poems are ongoing records of the metabolism of the city, its circadian rhythms, the urban dopamine rush, the queasy malaise of the lockdown era, and that stubborn organic force that persists against the weight of history. His poems are enduring time capsules of the Beijing we leave behind, and the Beijing we take with us.”
David Moser, author of A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language
“Anthony Tao brings China utterly, pungently, viscerally to life. He writes in three dimensions and five senses. I savored this astonishing writing.”
Evan Osnos, author of the National Book Award-winning Age of Ambition
“Anthony Tao writes about his life in his birth city, Beijing, the nightclubs and restaurants, the hutongs [local streets], his neighbours, taxi drivers, social and political changes, and his dreams and disillusions …The poems in his debut book illuminate the best and the worst of China, as well as his sensibility as a poet and as a news editor..”
Ming Di, poet, translator, editor.
“Tao is a poet in the tradition of Li Bai – a moving chronicler of his times, a foreigner in his own land, and a poet for whom friendship is bittersweet. We Met in Beijing is an intimate journey through the ‘coarse aesthetics’ of China’s capital city – the sky’s ‘dust texture,’ the ‘ancient alleys,’ roadside pyres of cardboard, old men perched on stools, the flood of summer rains, donkey burgers and noodles, and of course, the bars.”
Simon Shieh, author of Master
The author
Anthony Tao was born in Beijing, grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, and graduated with a journalism degree from Northwestern University. He returned to Beijing in 2008 to cover the Olympics for ESPN The Magazine, and then stayed. He has worked an assortment of editing and writing jobs, coordinated the Bookworm International Literary Festival. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Prairie Schooner, NPR, Frontier, The Cortland Review. He is a founding member of Poetry x Music Band
Anthony Tao
We Met in Beijing
Introduced by Kaiser Kuo
Beijing is a city of multitudes, filled with contradictions and constantly in flux. It is a place for dreamers and schemers, musicians and migrant workers, techies and teachers, cat ladies and cab drivers — and at the same time, a place for none of them, a seat of power that can feel unwelcoming and closed.
There are few people better situated to provide a snapshot of contemporary Beijing than Anthony Tao, who was born in this city. He grew up in the US before returning in 2008 as a journalist to cover the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. He has stayed ever since, tracking the changes — big and small — that have shaped China and its residents.
We Met in Beijing, Tao’s debut collection, is an account of trying to set down roots in a Chinese metropolis, evoking the elements that make Beijing the dynamic, unique city that it is, full of tree-lined streets, dusty alleys, mirthful canals, fashionable rooftops, and sweaty nightclubs. It is also a profile of a political and cultural nerve centre — astute watchers of China news will know the headlines, but We Met in Beijing gives readers a rare on-the-ground perspective.
The title poem is a tribute to community — specifically, the bars and clubs that have acted as meeting points for an array of people — and an acknowledgment that the only constant in Beijing is change. The vast majority of foreigners who set foot in Beijing do so temporarily, but accepting this transience opens the way for intense and unforgettable experiences.
Publication date 4 November 2025
128 pages | 978-1-0685257-5-9 | Paperback
Early praise for We Met in Beijing
“Anthony Tao has become the Poet Laureate of Beijing. His poems are ongoing records of the metabolism of the city, its circadian rhythms, the urban dopamine rush, the queasy malaise of the lockdown era, and that stubborn organic force that persists against the weight of history. His poems are enduring time capsules of the Beijing we leave behind, and the Beijing we take with us.”
David Moser, author of A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language
“Anthony Tao brings China utterly, pungently, viscerally to life. He writes in three dimensions and five senses. I savored this astonishing writing.”
Evan Osnos, author of the National Book Award-winning Age of Ambition
“Anthony Tao writes about his life in his birth city, Beijing, the nightclubs and restaurants, the hutongs [local streets], his neighbours, taxi drivers, social and political changes, and his dreams and disillusions …The poems in his debut book illuminate the best and the worst of China, as well as his sensibility as a poet and as a news editor..”
Ming Di, poet, translator, editor.
“Tao is a poet in the tradition of Li Bai – a moving chronicler of his times, a foreigner in his own land, and a poet for whom friendship is bittersweet. We Met in Beijing is an intimate journey through the ‘coarse aesthetics’ of China’s capital city – the sky’s ‘dust texture,’ the ‘ancient alleys,’ roadside pyres of cardboard, old men perched on stools, the flood of summer rains, donkey burgers and noodles, and of course, the bars.”
Simon Shieh, author of Master
The author
Anthony Tao was born in Beijing, grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, and graduated with a journalism degree from Northwestern University. He returned to Beijing in 2008 to cover the Olympics for ESPN The Magazine, and then stayed. He has worked an assortment of editing and writing jobs, coordinated the Bookworm International Literary Festival. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Prairie Schooner, NPR, Frontier, The Cortland Review. He is a founding member of Poetry x Music Band