I’m working with the Association for Asian Studies, the Journal of Asian Studies and Jeffrey Wasserstrom on a new news proposal. We’re one of 51 finalists of some 1,000 entries to the Knight News Challenge and will find out in a few weeks if they will help fund the project. In the meantime, we’re looking for more […]
Posts in the Asia category:
Part 2 of my interview with Rob Schmitz
In the Los Angeles Review of Books: In part 2 of this interview, Rob Schmitz talks more about factory workers in China, the vast system of netting installed at factory dormitories to cut back on worker suicides, the problems with and opportunities for doing responsible journalism in China, and his book recommendations. Listen here.
Part 1 of my interview with Rob Schmitz
In the Los Angeles Review of Books: “Rob Schmitz is the Shanghai bureau chief for American Public Media’s Marketplace. He broke the story about Mike Daisey, showing that Daisey’s reporting on Chinese factory workers for This American Life was full of fabrication. He talks here with Angilee Shah about that story, about reporting in China, […]
April 18 at UCLA, I’ll be in coversation with Marketplace China correspondent Rob Schmitz
These days, Rob is in the news for debunking the Mike Daisey Foxconn investigation that aired on This American Life. We’ll be talking about that story and his other reporting on China for American Public Media’s Marketplace radio program at UCLA on April 17. Is there something you want me to ask? Please leave your questions in […]
First press on Chinese Characters comes from Beijing
The collection of essays about everyday lives in China that I have been working on for about two years made its pre-publication debut in China at the M Literary Festival. Chinese Characters contributors Evan Osnos, Ian Johnson, Michelle Loyalka, Christina Larson and my co-editor Jeffrey Wasserstrom spoke on the “Art of the Profile” at a Beijing panel discussion earlier this month. […]
India, China, and the Importance of Storytelling
Every time they fly in and out of Mumbai, tourists, businesspeople, and politicians can see blue-tarp and cardboard rooftops squeezed between condominiums and luxury hotels. The irony of Mumbai’s slums is that the urban poor are ubiquitous, simultaneously visible and invisible. But seeing slums from the perspective of those who inhabit them — and not […]
Bollywood in L.A.
Growing up in Kashmir, Raj Singh loved going to the theater. “In Kashmir, I was watching two movies in a day,” Singh recalls. “Here, I have no time to see movies.” Movies, instead, are Singh’s job. As general manager of the Naz 8 cinema in Artesia, which is northeast of Long Beach, he runs an […]
New book, now on Tumblr
The book I am co-editing with China historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom will be published next year by UC Press. In the meantime, we’ve started a Tumblr to highlight the work of contributors and provide updates, Enjoy!
What Obama Missed in Indonesia
President Barack Obama’s visit to Indonesia was cut short because of volcanic ash, but what he missed was an annual tradition that says a lot about a country relatively unfamiliar to most Americans. Indonesia marks Heroes’ Day every Nov. 10 to commemorate extraordinary service to the nation. Among those considered this year for addition to […]
Deeper Reading: Recent Titles on Islam around the World
If you are reading and watching American news in the last few weeks, you are probably simultaneously seeing a lot and very little about Islam in America today. The conversation surrounding Park51, the Islamic community center slated to be built in Lower Manhatten, is often very shallow, with little explication of terms and nuance. Words […]