I’m a writer, university lecturer and award-winning feminist journalist. My stories make sense of China and Asia in a global context.

Now judging this year’s Orwell Prize in Political Writing, I’ve spent over a decade reporting from Asia, Europe and the United States for The Guardian, BBC, The Financial Times, CNN, LA Review of Books, WIRED, The Economist, Times Literary Supplement and many more publications.

I was shortlisted for the Philip Hoare Prize for global creative non-fiction and Georgina Henry Award for Innovation; my reporting was recognised by the World Association of News Publishers. Born and raised in Hong Kong, I'm now based in London, where I teach media and communications at Kingston University.

I’m the founder of New Tide, Britain’s only East and Southeast Asian journalism network. I also manage the magazine editorial team at NüVoices, a US-based China feminist nonprofit, and serve as contributing editor at Translator, a publication of translated journalism. I’m open for commissions, pitches and speaking engagements. I also offer personalised mentoring, content editing, tailored workshops and consultancy services.

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Featured

  • Can AI speak the language Japan tried to kill?

    More than a century after colonisation, the Ainu language almost vanished. Now machines are listening to hours of old recordings and learning to give it a new voice.

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  • The Women Who Fought Japan’s Empire

    Japanese colonialism is infamous for its brutalization of women, abducted and forced into sex slavery. Less known is women’s role in fighting against the Japanese Empire, brilliantly brought to life in two recent novels.

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  • How a dog stolen from China sparked a British luxury craze

    Meet “Looty,” a dog stolen by the British in the looting of China’s Old Summer Palace and gifted to the queen. Her journey sparked a craze–and left behind a legacy mired in imperialism and racism.

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  • ‘It’s difficult to survive’: China’s LGBTQ+ advocates​ face jail and forced confession

    Trans and queer people and their supporters suffer ‘systemic persecution’ as country pushes increasingly conservative values.

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  • Planning my multicultural wedding was already difficult. Finding a dress was even harder

    I wrote about how my wedding dress anxieties became less about the look itself, and more about what it had come to represent—my identity in a mixed-race marriage.

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  • Deported to a Country You Can’t Remember

    The Biden administration sent Phoeun You, a former child refugee, to Cambodia after more than four decades in the US.

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  • China’s war on Christmas hasn’t deterred kids from sending thousands of letters to Santa

    One Christmas, 12-year-old Wang’s classmate died of cancer. It was the first time one of her friends had passed away, and she wasn’t sure how to feel. Wang had written a letter to Santa the year before, so she decided to sit down and write another.

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  • Myanmar’s Women Are on the Front Lines Against the Junta

    Protesters are using the military's fear of women against it.

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  • “We’re All Chinese, Aren’t We?”

    Jessie Lau ponders Emily Feng’s “Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China.”

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  • Hong Kong Is Still Waiting for Its Feminist Uprising

    Women and girls in the ongoing protest movement are up against a deeply unequal society.

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  • The Ghost Villages: A Guide to Hong Kong’s Abandoned Hakka Settlements

    Just a short minibus ride from the MTR, the rich history of Hakka villages lies in ruins along the Starling Inlet. 

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Deported to a Country You Can’t Remember
Jessie Lau Jessie Lau

Deported to a Country You Can’t Remember

Former child refugee Phoeun You was paroled from California’s San Quentin State Prison in 2021–only to be deported to Cambodia. He’s free, but can’t return to the only home he remembers

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