Ms Madeleine M O'Dea

Madeleine O’Dea is an author and journalist who has been covering the political, economic, and cultural life of China for the past three decades. Her memoir/history of post Cultural Revolution China, "The Phoenix Years: Art, Resistance and the Making of Modern China" was published by Pegasus Books in Nth America in October 2017. Thomas Keneally, the author of "Schindler’s List", called the book “magnificent,” and “essential,” concluding “let no one speak of China who has not read The Phoenix Years”.

Madeleine brings a strong personal angle to the China story due to her long career covering the country, which includes 11 years living in China. She is experienced in newspapers, television, radio, and online.

Madeleine first covered China in the late 1980s for the Australian Financial Review newspaper, and subsequently through the 1990s as a television producer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She later worked as a presenter and editor with China Radio International, and was the founding editor-in-chief of ARTINFO China and the Asia correspondent for Art + Auction and Modern Painters magazines. She has written for a number of other outlets including the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and the Guardian.

She has recently appeared on KPFA’s Letters and Politics program, the American Scholar’s podcast Smarty Pants, ABC Radio National’s Conversations with Richard Fidler, and Radio New Zealand’s Saturday morning with Kim Hill. As well as media appearances, Madeleine has spoken at international writers festivals in India, China, Australia, and New Zealand, and at colleges and institutions across the USA and Australia.