New rule: we make editors go report in the field at least once a year. I personally ride or die for my direct editors but some newsroom leaders haven't left the walls of their newsroom in 10+ years and it shows

Exclusive from me (and my old colleague Abel Yu) 端傳媒 Initium Media: I spoke to a former colleague and student of Tim Walz at the Chinese high school he taught back in 1989. They remembered him being “very friendly” and “always had a big smile on his face”. 1/ theinitium.com/article/202408…

Someone like Walz who's unambiguously critical of the CCP but unambiguously empathetic to Chinese people and appreciative of China's non-political aspects makes him a harder case for CCP than someone hawkish on all dimensions. Makes him hard to villainize as an "anti-China" foil.

1/NEW: Trump's "God Bless the USA" Bibles are printed in China, Richard Lardner and I found. Records show ~120,000 Bibles were shipped to the U.S. in Feb and March from a country Trump has accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices apnews.com/article/trump-…

日照金山 at Meili Snow Mountains 🏔️

Recently learned that young Chinese don’t bring back souvenirs for their coworkers anymore, they order on Taobao and time it to arrive the day they come back then bring to the office because coworkers “are not worth the space in their suitcase” 😂

12月17日，广东广州。一网友在脉脉发帖，称自己40岁被裁员已失业2个月，投了458份简历全部已读不回。 目前每天都去图书馆骗家人还在上班。联系了多家企业因超龄或没有经验而被拒绝。 网友称他还要还房贷，孩子上学需要钱，父母还得靠自己养老“求社会多关注中年失业群体，给我们一个机会”

The importance of covering average people in foreign reporting.

Oh, this is fucking hysterical! Nothing will be better for US-China people-to-people relations than Americans discovering the incredible wit and humor of China's "netizens" via Xiaohongshu.

6/ Relatedly, racism and Orientalism play a role. The stereotype of Chinese people (and East Asians more broadly) as “copycats” or “automatons” lingers. The idea that they lack originality blinds us to abundant creativity and ingenuity. Fuck you if you don’t think this is a

7/ Then there’s a lack of expertise. The U.S. has underfunded and de-prioritized China studies for years. We lack reporters, policymakers, and business leaders who truly understand China’s society, culture, and political economy.

11/ If we want to avoid being perpetually surprised, we need to change how we report, teach, and think about China. That means breaking out of political frames, investing in expertise, and squarely confronting our own biases.

Read this 👇🏻

This is tremendously sad but I am afraid that more is to come latintimes.com/michigan-unive…

To kick off our 2025 AAJA Journalism Excellence Awards, we're excited to announce the recipients in our Written Reporting category: Shirsho Dasgupta (Shirsho Dasgupta) and Marrian Zhou! 👏 Read their work at awards.aaja.org. #AAJAKudos #AAPIHeritageMonth

Very honored to receive this award and thank you so much to all the people for supporting and contributing to this special project ♥️