HHS Grad Returns Home to Discuss New Book

Hopkins and China couldn’t be farther away geographically. But Mara Hvistendahl, a 1998 graduate of Hopkins High School, offers a personal connection between the two.

Hvistendahl has spent most of the past decade in China and now has a book out called Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men. She’ll be at the from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday to discuss her book and sign copies of it.

Hvistendahl’s book tells the story of 160 million females “missing” from Asia’s population because of sex-selective abortion. That’s more than the entire female population of the United States, and it’s skewing the sex ratio of the entire world.

Hvistendahl started studying Chinese in Hopkins—just one of four students in the Hopkins High School class at the time. Hopkins’ Chinese-language offerings have grown markedly since she graduated. The district now has XinXing Academy, a Chinese-immersion school that specializes in the language.