Liu Xiaobo

on February 7, 2014

Liu Xiaobo was a Chinese literary critic, writer, and human rights activist. He received a Ph.D. in literature from Beijing Normal University and taught at that institution, as well as the University of Oslo, the University of Hawaii, and Columbia University. From 2003 to 2007, he served as President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center. He was one of the primary authors of Charter 08, a document calling for more freedom of expression and democratic activity in China. In 2010, Liu received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was imprisoned four times for his writings and human rights activities, and in July 2017 died eight years into an 11-year prison term for “inciting subversion of state power.”

Lynn Zhang

on February 7, 2014

Lynn Zhang graduated from New York University with a Master’s degree in Journalism. Currently based in Beijing, she is a freelance video producer for The New York Times.

Liu Heung Shing

on February 7, 2014

Liu Heung Shing is a Hong Kong-born former foreign correspondent and photojournalist for The Associated Press. He shared the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Spot News Photography, for his coverage of the Soviet Union’s collapse, and the Overseas Press Club Award in 1991 for his work with The Associated Press. Liu is well known for his photographs of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and one of his images was awarded Picture of the Year by the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. In 1989, he was also named Best Photographer by the Associated Press Managing Editors. Liu is the author and editor of many books, including China After Mao: 'Seek Truth from Facts' （Penguin, 1983), China, Portrait of a Country (Taschen, 2008), Shanghai, A History in Photographs 1842 to Today (World Publishing Corporation, 2010; Penguin Global, 2011), and China in Revolution: The Road to 1911 (Hong Kong University Press, 2012).

Luo Xiaoyuan

on February 7, 2014

Xiaoyuan Luo is a Masters student in International Relations at New York University. Her studies concentrate on the Asia Pacific and U.S.-China relations. Before coming to the U.S., she received a B.A. in English and International Trade, and worked as an interpreter for several trade fairs. Luo is an intern with Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, prior to which she interned with the New York Public Interest Research Group and Wikistrat. She has a strong interest in China's new media and its role in politics. With a passion for solving China's social problems and bettering international relations, Luo wants to pursue a career in media communication, journalism, and public policy.

Lois Snow

on February 7, 2014

California born and raised, Lois Snow has been an actress on Broadway for many years and is a member of New York City’s Actor’s Studio. She has appeared in many television productions, in particular the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light. Her books include China on Stage, A Death with Dignity: When the Chinese Came, and Edgar Snow’s China: An Account of the Chinese Revolution Compiled from the Writings of Edgar Snow. Ms. Snow was married to the journalist and author Edgar Snow, with whom she traveled to China. She lives in Switzerland.

Leta Hong Fincher

on February 7, 2014

Leta Hong Fincher is the author of Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China (2014). She recently completed her PhD in Sociology at Tsinghua University. She has a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. Her research on “leftover” women and the property market in China has been cited by many news organizations, including The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio. She is an award-winning former journalist with extensive experience in China and the United States. 

Leslie T. Chang

on February 7, 2014

Leslie T. Chang has written about women in the developing world for two decades. Her book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (Spiegel & Grau, 2008) traces the lives of two young women from the countryside who work in a factory city in southern China. Factory Girls was named a New York Times Notable Book and has been translated into 10 languages. Chang is a recipient of the PEN USA Literary Award, the Asian American Literary Award, the Tiziano Terzani International Literary Prize, the Quality Paperback Book Club New Visions Award, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship.

From 2011 to 2016, Chang lived in Cairo, Egypt. Her book about the working women of Egypt will be published next year.

Prior to that, Chang lived in China for a decade as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. She has also written for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and National Geographic. A graduate of Harvard University with a degree in American History and Literature, Chang has also worked as a journalist in the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

She and her husband, writer Peter Hessler, live in southwestern Colorado with their twin daughters.

Leap

on February 7, 2014

LEAP is the leading international art magazine of contemporary China. Published six times a year in Chinese and English, it presents a winning mix of contemporary art coverage and cultural commentary from the cutting edge of the Chinese art scene. 

Leah Thompson

on February 7, 2014

Leah Thompson is a multimedia producer and the Associate Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society. At the Center, she has produced videos on issues ranging from arts and culture to the Beijing Olympics, climate change, and foreign investment. Her recent work on the rural-urban divide in China has been published on ChinaFile and translated for the Chinese edition of The New York Times. In 2013, she received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, along with her colleague Sun Yunfan, to continue their work covering a counter-urbanization effort in rural China.

Thompson is also the project director of COAL+ICE, an ongoing multimedia photography exhibition that opened at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing in 2011.

She holds a B.A. in History and American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in History from San Francisco State University. She lives in Brooklyn.

Laura Chang

on February 7, 2014

Laura Chang is Assistant Editor of ChinaFile. She is a Senior Program Officer with Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations where she primarily focuses on policy and cultural programming. She has been with the Asia Society for five years and organized the Bernard Schwartz book award. Originally from Northern California, she holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and M.S. from New York University. She studied Chinese and Japanese history, environmental policy, and international relations and spent a year studying in Tokyo.