The recent affirmative action lawsuit against Harvard seemed to confirm advice given for years to Asian Americans applying to college: Don’t play chess. Don’t check the box declaring race. Try not to come across as “too Asian.” My latest: nytimes.com/2022/12/02/us/…

The end of Zero COVID may finally be in sight. But what do three years of the basic inability to plan for tomorrow do to people’s ambition and optimism? I spent two weeks in Guangdong — one of the most dynamic parts of China — trying to find out: nytimes.com/2022/12/04/wor…

⁦James Millward 米華健⁩ writes: “Political theorists in the early 20th century coined the term “state of exception” for an authoritarian state’s use of crises to normalize extraordinary extralegal measures — and keep them in effect indefinitely.” nytimes.com/2022/12/06/opi…

Must watch: Exclusive evidence obtained in a monthslong investigation identifies the Russian regiment — and commander — behind one of the worst atrocities in Ukraine. nytimes.com/2022/12/22/vid…

1/China is facing a medical emergency. Two harrowing days in Hebei’s ICUs shows the area’s hospitals are buckling with the spread of COVID. We saw ambulances turned away from hospitals, relatives frantically searching for beds, patients sprawled on floors apnews.com/article/health…

Excited to announce that I've joined the stellar crew of The Daily! lfg! 🍞💪 nytco.com/press/new-coll…

“She’s talking about not really having anything left in the tank, and I think part of what’s probably contributed to that is just the disgusting level of sexist and misogynistic abuse to what she has been subjected,” Professor Wilson said. nytimes.com/2023/01/19/wor…

I spoke to Mike Zhang, 71, who survived the mass shooting on Lunar new year in Monterey Park, CA. He said he didn’t know what gunshots sounded like before that day, but will never forget now. nytimes.com/video/us/10000… with Ang Li Sarah Kerr Ben Laffin and New York Times Video

“We care about this society, we have legitimate emotions to express...So why do you still have to secretly take us away?” Zixu Wang and I on the women known to be formally arrested in China's quiet crackdown on the anti-zero Covid protesters: nytimes.com/2023/01/26/wor…

This is a haunting first-person account, expertly done by Isabelle Qian New York Times Video, capturing the sheer joy -- and pure terror -- of what happened in Monterey Park nytimes.com/video/us/10000…

Congratulations, tania branigan! Can’t wait to read this.

China's one-child policy has led to a surplus of men, intensifying the competition for wives and causing "bride prices" to ⬆️ in recent years. Zixu Wang and I took a closer look at this custom and why officials are cracking down on it: nytimes.com/2023/03/26/wor…

The New York Times is looking for an experienced journalist to cover the technology industry, everything from the companies to government policy and consumer trends, in Asia. More details here: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/INYT/job…

That’s in large part due to our coverage of Xinjiang: featuring regular columns on the repression of Uyghurs (including one by Darren Byler), talking about it on the podcast, and even putting it in the boilerplate Sinica intro for nearly 5 years. 6/x

Darren Byler It’s always been an article of faith with us that given its sheer size and complexity, China’s Xinjiang policies, while risible, don’t mean that we simply write off the whole nation or even the whole leadership as “evil.” 7/x

“He hadn’t been hired. He had been kidnapped and forced to work for an abusive online scam operation. Only by understanding how it worked could he hope to escape.” Great tale by ⁦Isabelle Qian⁩, graphic design by ⁦Pablo Robles⁩. Read this! nytimes.com/interactive/20…

THREAD: Lured by a fake job, a man was kidnapped and trapped in a labor camp by a Chinese scam gang. He worked for his captors for six months while secretly sending me photos, videos and financial records from inside. Then, he went silent. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

So thrilled that Meaghan Tobin, whose work I've long admired, is joining the Times as the paper's new Asia tech correspondent. Welcome, Meaghan! nytco.com/press/meaghan-…

China is separating Tibetan children from their families and placing them in boarding schools for assimilation and political indoctrination. Tibetans fear a generation of children will lose their culture, religion and language. Read Chris Buckley 儲百亮’s latest nytimes.com/interactive/20…

“House of Huawei” is out today in the US and UK! It’s the story of how one of the world’s most controversial high-tech companies was built, set against the backdrop of the political, social and economic transformation of modern China. Here’s my cat Pigeon inspecting it.