Jessie Lau is a London-based writer and award-winning journalist from Hong Kong

I tell stories about identity and empire with a feminist approach. I’ve spent more than a decade reporting from Asia, Europe and the United States for The Guardian, BBC, LA Review of Books, The Economist, CNN and many more publications. Recently shortlisted for the Philip Hoare Prize for global creative non-fiction, I’ve also been recognised for my reporting by the World Association of News Publishers, among others. Now, I’m a judge for the 2026 Orwell Prize in Political Writing. I also teach journalism part-time as a lecturer at Kingston University.

Passionate about building platforms for marginalised communities, I founded New Tide, Britain’s only East and Southeast Asian journalism network, which was nominated for the Georgina Henry Award for Innovation. I’m also head of the magazine at NüVoices, a China-focused feminist nonprofit, and contributing editor at Translator, a publication of translated journalism. Commission and pitch me!

Featured stories

  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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