J.R. Thornton’s debut novel "Beautiful Country" is set in modern-day China and centers on the friendship between two boys from opposite sides of the world, America and China. J.R. Thornton, alongside his father, scholar and businessman John Thornton, spoke with Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer about his new book and how he drew from his own experiences of living in Beijing as a teenager.
“It’s loosely inspired by experiences that I had in China when I was living there as a 14-year-old. I spent a year there living with a host family and training with the junior national tennis team,” said Thornton. “And I was really moved by the experiences of a lot of the boys I practiced with every day. Even after I left China, those experiences really stayed with me. And that is where the idea for the book came from.”
While growing up, J.R. Thornton was an internationally ranked junior tennis player. He graduated from Harvard in 2014, where he studied history, English, and Chinese, and is now a part of the Schwarzman Scholars program, a highly selective, one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Thornton’s father, a former president of Goldman Sachs, is currently a professor at the university and serves as chairman of the Brookings Institution as well as Barrick Gold. He told Yahoo Finance that he thinks writing a book is "one of the greatest things you can do in your life."
“I think in fiction, in particular, you're getting to the essence of the humanity of the author,” he said. “And the expression of that, I think is fantastic, whether it's my son or anyone else.”
The younger Thornton has yet to decide on a career path, but plans to continue writing and hopes to incorporate his fascination with China along with his passion for writing.
J.R. Thornton believes the U.S-China relations are very important for the future, and notes that he has seen his generation’s interest in the country rise over the past few years. “I remember when I started at my high school, the most popular languages were Spanish, then French, then German… by the time I graduated, Chinese was the second-most popular after Spanish.”
And as China becomes a more active player on the international stage, J.R. Thornton thinks it's important for the U.S. to teach Chinese culture in schools. “Every kid in China who goes to university can speak English because it's part of the National Exam,” said Thornton. “And so, if you think about this being the most important relationship of the next 100 years, I think the U.S. is making a lot of good steps, but still has a long way to go in terms of engaging the youth.”
"Beautiful Country," is published by Harper Collins.
