This week, NüVoices host and founder Joanna Chiu joins NüVoices editor and board member Jessie Lau to discuss their exciting new life chapters that extend their vision of NüVoices.
In the UK, Jessie launched New Tide, Britain’s only East and Southeast Asian journalism network. Recently, it was nominated for the Georgina Henry Award for Innovation.
In North America, Joanna co-founded Nüora Global Advisors, a journalist-led consultancy aiming to help organisations decode Asia’s geopolitics, culture, and consumers, by combining in-house expertise and project management with a vetted global consultant network.
From launching the website of NüVoices in a cafe in Beijing in 2018, to now creating two new initiatives that continue to amplify women’s and BIPOC voices, what have driven both Joanna and Jessie to begin more entrepreneurial chapters of their lives? As they reflect on their China reporting in the past decade, what are their takeaways for emerging China journalists and professionals?
On finding opportunities in a constantly changing industry with job insecurity:
Chiu: “I think what I see is it doesn’t matter if you’re a top, very talented, very valuable journalist. No one is safe from layoffs — it’s going to get you at some point.
So being nimble and always scanning for what opportunities there are, and networking like an entrepreneur.”
On creating your own voice and style through portfolio-building:
Lau: “I think (the industry) has really pushed me to identify what value I bring as a journalist and what stories that I actually want to work on.
When people are not giving you opportunities, you should just make your own opportunities. It’s actually a strength to be multi-platform…to be able to think and cover different topics.”
On accepting yourself while pursuing personal growth:
Lau: “My advice is to just really stay true to what you want to do. As a journalist, you’re going to get a lot of advice from people…(but) I’ve always had a strong vision of the type of stories I want to tell.
It’s important for (building) a long-term career as well. You need this (topic) that you won’t get sick of, in a way, that’s always going to be relevant.”
Shownotes:
New Tide: https://substack.com/@newtidemedianetwork
Nüora Global Advisors: https://www.nuoraglobal.com/
Recommendations:
Joanna: Tai Po fires op-ed by Crystal Tai
Jessie: When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Peiyin
About our guest:
Jessie Lau is a writer and London-based freelance journalist, from Hong Kong. Her reporting focuses on identity, human rights, politics and culture – particularly in China and Asia – and has appeared in The Guardian, BBC, The Economist, CNN, Los Angeles Review of Books, WIRED magazine and many other publications. Now editor and board member at the global feminist non-profit NüVoices, she’s also contributing editor at Translator, a magazine of translated journalism, and founder of New Tide Media Network, a community for East and Southeast Asian journalists in the United Kingdom. She holds a MSc in International History from the London School of Economics, an LLM in International Studies from Peking University, and a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley.
About our host:
Joanna Chiu is vice-chair and co-founder of NüVoices and managing partner of Nüora Global Advisors. Her debut book, China Unbound, won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was praised by The New York Review of Books as “heartfelt” and “powerful,” and by Publishers Weekly as “essential.” She has over 15 years of experience in reporting and newsroom management, with roles at AFP, The Economist, and Foreign Policy, and has led teams as Vancouver bureau chief for the Toronto Star and as China editor at Rest of World. Her global affairs columns appear in Monocle and The Globe and Mail, and her writing and work with NüVoices have been recognized with honors including the Kathy Gannon Legacy Award, a CEMA Award for Excellence in Analysis, and a Human Rights Press Award.
Episode credits:
Producer: Wing Kuang
Editor, sound engineer: Rebecca Liu
NüVoices fellow: Suchita Thepkanjana
Managing Editor: Megan Cattel