Newest Work
Meet Chinese cowboy Bruce Wang, an international student in Texas who decided to transform to fit in. He learned a Southern accent by watching Duck Dynasty and Jeff Foxworthy.
Welcome to Donald Chen's Texas ranch: a place where Chinese gun lovers live out firearm fantasies that are largely forbidden in China.
One out of every 10 Korean Americans are adopted. But why? And what's it like for adoptees to return to their birthland for the first time?
Goldthread
In 2018, I co-founded a visual publication that covers culture, identity, and travel in Greater China through video and other multimedia formats for a global audience. Incubated by the South China Morning Post.
As the project’s first hire and content director, I crafted the editorial, creative, and social media strategy of the publication.
SHENZHEN / In China, you can use your face to buy food, thanks to facial recognition, QR codes, and WeChat Pay. But is the convenience worth the loss in privacy?
HONG KONG / Hong Kong's namesake, the "heung" incense tree, sells for more than its weight in gold and is threatened by poaching, largely from mainland China.
Award-Winning Documentaries on Chinese-Americans
Roles: Correspondent, Producer, Researcher, Writer
This three-part series I pitched and co-produced about the Chinese-American communities in the Mississippi Delta, the San Gabriel Valley, and San Francisco have garnered over 10 million views and fostered productive, viral discourses on race on reddit. The San Francisco episode won a regional Emmy in Northern California.
Episodic Video Series
The Chinese Internet explained
Chef’s Plate
Consider the Food
Spoopy or Spooky?
Hosted Videos
Illustrated Videos
Other international video stories:
SHANGHAI / Finding Reggae in Shanghai - A look inside China’s reggae scene with musician, Jado. The country’s connection with reggae dates back to the 19th century, when Chinese laborers were sent to Jamaica.
SHANGHAI / Meet the Queen of Shanghai Jazz, Coco Zhao - “Being gay is part of my life. And to play music is also part of my life.” Coco Zhao (赵可) is Chinese-born musician who sees his music and identity as a way to bridge the East and West.
BEIJING / Shaolin and Hip Hop in the Age of a Rap Ban in China - 36th Chamber, one of Beijing’s original b-boy dance crews, talks about how the hip hop ban affected China’s culture, the Black-American struggle that gave rise to the early hip hop pioneers in New York, and the intersection of Shaolin martial arts and hip hop from the 1970s to modern day.
CHENGDU / Inside a Very Large Baijiu Factory - We got an inside tour of Jian Nan Chun 剑南春, a baijiu factory in Sichuan, and found out how the world's most consumed liquor is made.
Words
Goldthread, 2019, “The Duke University Chinese Email, Explained”
Goldthread, 2018, “Making Sense of Our Obsession with the Moon”
AJ+, 2016, “Here’s What Chinese Takeout Menus Can Teach Us About Immigration”
AJ+, 2016, “Remember When Aaliyah and Jet Li Fell in Love in ‘Romeo Must Die’?”
AJ+, 2015, “A Globetrotter’s Guide to Free Speech and Avoiding the Authorities” (Satire)
AJ+, 2015, “Survival Guide for the Young and Broke” (Satire)
Illustrations and Infographics
