Tag: China Daily

China Daily this month published my column about the “love nang” I carried back from my trip this summer. Here’s an excerpt, which captures the moment when I just boarded my return plane bound for Beijing:

…I was still clutching to my chest a rather unusual package, wondering if it would even fit in the overhead compartment.

It was circular and flat, wider than the car tires on your average sedan, and more than 2 kilograms in weight－too heavy for the plastic bags around it, leaving one set of handles in tatters. Through the layers of plastic bags and the pink brocade covering, I could feel how a few small pieces had already broken off inside. This led me to grip it even tighter, worried it might not survive under the weight of someone’s carry-on suitcase.

After all, this was not your typical souvenir, but rather－as my colleagues had dubbed it－a stack of “love nang“.

Read the full piece here — and if you like it, share it!

I’m excited to share that my story recently made front page of the China Daily paper! The feature, based on reporting from my recent trip, profiles a number of up-and-coming women I encountered. Here’s an excerpt:

A photograph of 34-year-old Maryam Mamatali is positioned on a wall at a factory run by Nanda New Agriculture Group….

Her smile exudes the quiet confidence of a woman who has risen from working on a milk production line to become manager of an entire workshop.

“Since childhood, I have always been very hardworking. When I joined the company, I was really interested in learning and was a fast learner,” said Maryam, a member of the Uygur ethnic group. “The bosses noticed my progress, so they really believed in me. They felt that I could do this work and shoulder more responsibility, so eventually they made me a manager.”

Maryam, who has been with Nanda for 11 years, said many people admire her for joining one of the largest and most reputable companies in Kashgar.

The job also changed her life in a more personal way－she found love.

“When I joined the company, my husband’s father worked there as a guard. He saw me and introduced me to his son,” Maryam said.

The couple, who dated for just two months before getting married at a ceremony attended by company bosses, now has three children－a son and younger twin daughters.

“This job has been especially good,” said Maryam, whose salary has greatly helped the family. “We have renovated our home into a villa with a small fruit garden. When I have to buy something for my kids, I no longer worry about it, and before winter sets in this year, I’m planning to buy a new car.”

You can read the full story here, along with my reporter’s log from the trip. And if you like them, share them!

China Daily just published my latest column titled Learning to celebrate cultural differences in birthdays. Here’s an excerpt:

With the arrival of July, the month I was born, conversations at my home have invariably shifted to discussing potential “birthday programs”, as my husband Jun likes to say. ….

This year, he has already begun sketching out details for a birthday trip to the Chengde Mountain Resort, where we can walk together hand in hand in the splendor of the former imperial summer palace and grounds, and hopefully take in some of the picturesque mountain views I’ve glimpsed in photographs online.

But while Jun has approached my birthday like a production, he has often seen his own birthday as just an afterthought.

Read the full piece here — and if you like it, share it!

China Daily recently published my column titled Time for full reckoning with anti-Asian racism. Here’s an excerpt:

The National Day of Action and Healing on March 26 was launched in the United States to galvanize individuals, businesses and organizations to take steps to tackle anti-Asian racism and hate incidents. As organizers have called for efforts to make streets and businesses safer for Asians, they’re also asking that business leaders work to address the long-standing problem of anti-Asian discrimination in areas such as the workplace. 

I’m encouraged that people are also seizing this moment as an opportunity to shine a light on the pervasive problem of anti-Asian bias, which often acts insidiously through systems and institutions and doesn’t usually produce the kind of shocking video footage that commands more attention in the media.

The 2019 study Discrimination in the US: Experiences of Asian Americans published in Health Services Research found 37 percent of Asian adults said they had experienced racial discrimination. That number jumped to 60 percent for the overseas Chinese in a recent survey highlighted by the US-based World Journal in a March 26 article. Such discrimination may not necessarily inflict physical harm, yet can be devastating.

Imagine being prosecuted by the government for alleged espionage you never committed. Racial profiling under the guise of national security has long threatened the livelihoods of scores of Chinese scientists in the US. Most are familiar with Wen Ho Lee, who was later exonerated, but more recently many others have been wrongfully targeted－including Cao Guoqing, Li Shuyu, Sherry Chen and Xi Xiaoxing.

More often, though, anti-Asian workplace discrimination occurs in subtle ways. Consider the news in February 2021 that Google agreed to a settlement with the US Department of Labor, after an investigation exposed problems including “hiring rate differences “that impacted not only female but also Asian job seekers.

Meanwhile, Asian students can have their education and careers harmed at the hands of instructors and faculty, who may disguise racial animus behind pretextual explanations.

Read the full article here. And if you like it, share it!

Photo credit: John Englart – https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/24802572641