“At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China,” by Edward Wong (Viking, 2024) “At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China,” by Edward Wong (Viking, 2024) Wong, a New York Times correspondent, uses his father’s memories of his childhood in Guandong province and Hong Kong — through his university studies in Beijing and his military service in both northeast and far northwest China (the “edge of empire” of the title) — as the framework to explore Imperial Chinese history and even modern-day events there.