Today, we have a special guest on the podcast (and a worthy NüVoices ally) MIT Tech Review reporter, Zeyi Yang! Together with co-hosts Megan Cattel and Solarina Ho, Zeyi talks about China’s initial reception to ChatGPT and all the uproar and suspicion surrounding TikTok. What are valid concerns surrounding the app and Bytedance? What are oversimplifications made by members of Congress and Western media? Is TikTok really “digital fentanyl” like some experts claim? We touch on all this and more in the episode.
About Zeyi Yang
As a reporter for MIT Technology Review, he covers technologies in China and East Asia. His work often focuses on the intersection of tech and social issues, particularly LGBTQ rights and immigration. He writes a weekly newsletter China Report that bridges the Chinese tech industry and readers in the English-speaking world. Previously, his writing has been published in Protocol, Rest of World, Columbia Journalism Review, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, among others. He has received awards from the Asian American Journalists Association, the Association of LGBTQ Journalists, and the Society of Professional Journalists. In his spare time, Zeyi also works as a podcaster, translator, and fact-checker.
About Solarina Ho
She is a freelance reporter and writer with more than 15 years of journalism experience, most of which was spent at one of the world’s largest and oldest news agencies, Reuters. She currently writes on a broad range of health, general, and business news for various publications and organizations, with a particular focus on COVID-19. Her personal areas of interest include topics related to China, women’s issues, media/journalism, parenting and children, immigration, the environment, space exploration, technology, and pop culture (mostly television).
About Megan Cattel
Megan Cattel is a freelance multimedia reporter currently based in Tampa, FL. For the past three years, she has reported extensively on Asian American and immigrant communities. Her byline has appeared in Teen Vogue, WBUR, the Center for Public Integrity, The China Project, and the South China Morning Post.
Shownotes and Recommendations:
“Pandemic coverage and information gaps” by Zeyi Yang in CJR
“How Twitter’s “Teacher Li” became the central hub of China protest information” by Zeyi Yang in MIT Technology Review
China Report, MIT Tech Review’s weekly newsletter written by Zeyi
Coventry by Rachel Cusk
“We can’t view health as an exclusively personal matter – it’s a collective endeavour” by Wency Leung in Globe & Mail
“Seeding Hope” by Caroline Chen in ProPublica
The Labor of Reinvention by Lin Zhang
The new Fall Out Boy album