Alice Evans, Managing Editor of Holt Publications

Yunnan province, China—Peasants and water buffalo labor in the rice paddies as we travel by van along a cobbled granite road. Small tractors chug past carrying loads of sugar cane. The economy is slash-and-burn agriculture. The bane is poverty, heroin, HIV/AIDS. Smoke rises in the distance in small clouds. [...]

Alice Evans, Holt Managing Editor of Publications

Nanchang, China—If you ask Yan Meng who she loves most, she will tell you: “my daddy.” He is the one who believed she could be taught. He is the one who homeschools her. He is the one who handcrafted a set of crutches and bought her a little stationary [...]

Alice Evans, Holt Managing Editor of Publications

Nanchang, China—Melinda has a smile that lights up the room. She knits with her fingers. She loves to mess with photographers, making wry faces at the camera. Wheelchair bound, her tiny legs atrophied from lack of use, she is one of the ladies of the Nanchang Social [...]