This week, NüVoices editor and freelance journalist Jessie Lau speaks to Yi-Ling Liu, a writer covering technology and Chinese society, about her debut book “The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet”.
In this episode, Yi-Ling discusses how communities from the margins navigate censorship on the Chinese internet. She also describes how her own experiences reporting for Chinese and Western media shaped her approach to Wall Dancers, her debut book.
On the future of open internet:
“I don’t really think that the internet landscape that we exist in right now is the Chinese internet versus the open Internet. I actually just think it’s the Chinese internet and various forms of splintered, closed, siloed internets across the world.”
On the power and influence of technology on the free world:
“I think a lot of people were still kind of naive in assuming that technology had this kind of inherent liberatory potential, that new technology equals progress, new technology equals potential for freedom, and I don’t believe that anymore.
I don’t think that we can just assume the introduction of a new technology or the existence of the internet itself is something that can embolden or enable to be more free and more connected.”
On writing:
“One piece of advice that I would give for anyone who’s thinking of exploring maybe a book length project is find a question that you’re willing to dedicate a lot of your time and energy to, like a question that you would want to answer, and you’re looking for answers to, regardless of whether or not it’s through a book or whatever medium.”
Shownotes:
“The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet” by Yi-Ling Liu
Recommendations:
Everyday Movement, written by Gigi L. Leung, translated by Jennifer Feeley
Machine Decision Is Not Final: China and the History and Future of Artificial Intelligence, edited by Benjamin Bratton, Anna Greenspan, Amy Ireland, and Bogna Konior
About our guest:
Yi-Ling Liu is a writer & editor covering AI and Chinese society, from a human-centered lens. She is currently a journalist-in-residence at the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism. Her book, THE WALL DANCERS: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet, will be published by Knopf in the U.S. and Bonnier Books in the U.K. As a writer, her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, WIRED & The New Yorker on topics ranging from science-fiction novelists to national burnout crises to gay dating apps. As an editor, she launched & led the China desk at Rest of World as the first China Editor. She is a New America Fellow, a recipient of the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award, & an Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar. She is represented by Elias Altman at Massie & McQuilkin Literary. Connect with Yi-Ling on Instagram @instalingers, X @yilingliu95, and through her website.
About our host:
Jessie Lau is a London-based writer and journalist telling stories about identity and power, with a feminist approach. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she’s spent the past decade reporting from Asia, Europe and the United States. Her essays and reportage have appeared in The Guardian, BBC, Los Angeles Review of Books, CNN, Times Literary Supplement, The Economist and many more publications. A part-time journalism lecturer at Kingston University and judge of the 2026 Orwell Political Writing prize, Jessie is also the founder of New Tide, Britain’s only East and Southeast Asian journalism network, head of the magazine team at NüVoices, a non-profit supporting women and minorities working on China topics, and contributing editor at Translator, a publication of translated journalism. Follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Episode credits:
Producer: Wing Kuang
Editor, sound engineer: Rebecca Liu
Editorial Assistant: Suchita Thepkanjana
Managing Editor: Megan Cattel