NüVoices 女性之音

Film Review: Strangers When We Meet (朝云暮雨) This review is part of a series of reflections on Chinese films presented by the 2025 Beijing International Film Festival.

Strangers When We Meet presents two ex-convicts getting married for their needs for stability and financial security.

Cleo Li-Schwartz writes that despite outstanding performance, it shows how Chinese male directors often undermine female characters’ agency:

NüVoices Podcast #125: Mistress Dispeller, a conversation with director Elizabeth Lo This week, NüVoices host and board member Solarina Ho and Hong Kong filmmaker Elizabeth Lo discuss the director’s award-winning new documentary, Mistress Dispeller, which premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival last September. The film is now playing in select U.S. theaters.

This week on the pod, @solarina.ca talks to Hong Kong filmmaker Elizabeth Lo about her award-winning new documentary, 'Mistress Dispeller'. Now playing in select theatres across the US: nuvoices.com/2025/10/22/n...

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts!

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUep...

"I was kind of panicking," says Chloe Cheung, 20, a HK activist with a 1 million HKD bounty placed on her by Beijing. “The only reason everything happened in Hong Kong was because authorities wanted an extradition treaty with China. The warning light, of course, would switch on.”

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 i...

Japanese colonialism is infamous for its brutalization of women. But less known is women’s role in the resistance, brought to life in 2 novels I reviewed @jacobinmag.bsky.social - CAPITALISTS MUST STARVE by Park Seolyeon, translated @antonhur.com
& WHEN SLEEPING WOMEN WAKE by @emmapeiyin.bsky.social

Listen to our latest podcast episode with Barbara Demick on her latest book, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove📖

NüProfile: Translator Sarah Ye ties Shakespeare to Classical Chinese poetry Elizabethan houses and town halls may seem slightly out of place in China. But in 2017, construction began on a replica of a medieval English town in the city of Fuzhou, the capital of the industrial Fujian province. This project hasn’t just been an exercise in creative architecture. It’s been an attempt to reconstruct Stratford-upon-Avon – the home of England’s great bard, William Shakespeare. 

Beijing-based Shakespeare enthusiast Sarah Ye talks to Heather Irvine about translating Shakespeare's sonnets in her evenings after work. Read the piece here:

UK faces claims of capitulation to China after spy trial collapses Critics say London must hold Beijing to account on security, human rights

The British government is being accused of turning a blind eye to security threats posed by Beijing and prioritizing economic ties, after the collapse of a Chinese spy trial.

Yet others say the real problem is Britain’s lack of a coherent engagement strategy. My story @asia.nikkei.com @nikkei.com

Carrying Chinese-ness Across South America *Editor’s note: The following story was a runner-up in our first ever annual NüStories personal essay contest. This year’s theme was Chinese identity – read more here.

Travelling to see the world means accepting that the world will see you. In South America, Tappy Lung's interactions force her to contemplate her perceived "Chinese-ness".🏅 This essay was a runner-up in NüStories’ personal essay contest:

‘She didn’t realise how dangerous it was’: London-bound student held in China over Tibet support Zhang Yadi was due to begin a degree in the UK but the activist vanished on holiday amid tensions over Dalai Lama

I wrote a story @theguardian.com about Zhang Yadi, a London-bound Chinese student and Tibetan rights advocate who was arrested over the summer on suspicion of “inciting separatism.”

If found guilty, she faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

Read the story, with comments from @hrw.org, below:

Baby snatchers In a secluded shed, deep within the bamboo grove in a rural Chinese village, a woman gave birth to identical twin daughters. It was 2000, the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac – usually an ausp...

I wrote a review @thetls.bsky.social of “Daughters of the Bamboo Grove,” a deep investigation by author & former @latimes.com China correspondent @barbarademick.bsky.social into Beijing’s brutal One Child Policy that centres around the reunion of a pair of separated twins. Read in print or online 🔗

NüVoices Podcast #124: Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: A Conversation with Award-winning Author Barbara Demick This week, NüVoices editor and board member Jessie Lau speaks to returning guest, award-winning author and journalist Barbara Demick, about her new book “Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins.”

This week, Nüvoices editor Jessie Lau speaks to award-winning author Barbara Demick about her new book ‘Daughters of the Bamboo Grove,’ and how her reporting reunited twin sisters forced apart under Beijing’s One Child Policy and raised separately in China and the US:

In her latest short film ‘The Test’, Meng Han Hsieh, the UK-based Taiwanese filmmaker, reflects on the UK citizenship test and her identity as an East Asian female creative. Read the article by Angel Sun: nuvoices.com/2025/09/17/m...

How Hong Kong’s dystopias became its reality It is ten years since the film ‘Ten Years’ won its industry’s greatest accolade. Now the Chinese Communist Party has banned it—and stifled art in the ...

It’s been ten years since I first watched the banned HK dystopian film “Ten Years,” now being brought to Britain by the HK Film Festival UK.

I wrote my reflections in an essay @prospectmagazine.co.uk and spoke to some of the directors ahead of the London screening, co-hosted @amnestyuk.bsky.social

Meet the Hong Kong migrant mums swapping the workplace for home life *This feature was originally published in Initium Media on 26 July 2025. It has been edited and translated from Chinese into English by the author. Illustration: Angel Sun

In immigration, women usually give up their careers and take on childcare responsibilities. Read the article by Angel Sun, who speaks with Hong Kong migrant mums in the UK about their new motherhood: nuvoices.com/2025/08/26/m...

Speculative Fiction Workshop: Write to Find the World You Want · Luma Time: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. U.S. EDT / 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. BST Location: Zoom *** A Zoom link will be emailed to all registrants one day before the workshop from…

We still have spots open for our upcoming writing workshop with @hannamade.bsky.social!

Are you a writer interested in examining social issues through a futuristic lens? Join our workshop!

More info: nuvoices.com/2025/08/13/e...

Tickets: lu.ma/hnie6mgm

New Tide: What’s On in ESEA Heritage Month When I first moved to London about six years ago, as a Hong Kong journalist excited to start a new life in the United Kingdom, I was completely unprepared for the challenges of navigating Britain’s me...

I penned New Tide’s first newsletter celebrating our launch as the UK’s first East and Southeast Asian journalist’s media network!

Every month, our newsletter will feature a new ESEA journo and a round up of UK opportunities + events. Subscribe now: newtidenetwork.substack.com/p/new-tide-w...

Overseas Chinese feminists call on Beijing to protect women from digital violence Overseas Chinese feminists in London are calling on the Beijing government to strengthen protections against digital violence and the sexual exploitation of women, in the wake of a massive online sex scandal that recently rocked the nation.

Chinese feminist activists in the UK are urging Chinese authorities to protect women online, after sexually explicit images and videos of women were circulated in a Telegram group with over 900000 members. Read the article by Kelly Yu: nuvoices.com/2025/08/26/o...

This week, NüVoices host Tiffany Ap speaks with AI and tech analyst Grace Shao on the divergent approaches to AI deployment in China and the US, the domestic AI talent in China and the future of robotics. Listen here: nuvoices.com/2025/08/27/n...

Are you a writer interested in exploring sci-fi, and using fiction to examine social issues through a futuristic lens? Join our upcoming virtual Speculative Fiction Workshop, hosted by NüVoices and led by @hannamade.bsky.social

More information: nuvoices.com/2025/08/13/e...

Tickets: lu.ma/hnie6mgm

Film Review: The Shadowless Tower (白塔之光) This review is part of a series of reflections on Chinese films presented by the 2025 Beijing International Film Festival.

A northern Chinese coastal town, a divorced poet-turned-food-critic, a vivid and sharp young photographer: these are a few threads of The Shadowless Tower (2023), featured at the 2025 Beijing International Film Festival in London. Read the review by Cleo Li-Schwartz: nuvoices.com/2025/08/01/f...

How a health scare turned a ‘boring as hell’ finance worker into a feminist comedian It’s been three years since Kate Hu left her job as a quantitative analyst in finance to pursue stand-up comedy, a monumental career change that her traditional Chinese parents still know nothing about.

In 2020, Kate Hu was working a prestigious finance job when a potentially cancerous lump in her breast made her reevaluate her life. Now, she is a successful comedian who addresses issues of race and gender in her work.
Read about her journey, by Miya Yonger Shen: nuvoices.com/2025/08/01/w...

China’s cyber-abuse scandal: is the government unwilling to crack down on exploitation of women online? Secretly filmed images of women are spreading online, yet the authorities seem more focused on censorship than punishing the perpetrators, critics say

In the wake of China’s massive #maskpark scandal, in which sexually exploitative images of Chinese women were found to be shared in Telegram groups with hundreds of thousands of users, I wrote a story @theguardian.com about how the current system leaves women vulnerable to digital violence and abuse

Living in London, Belonging Nowhere *Editor’s note: The following story was a runner-up in our first ever annual NüStories personal essay contest. This year’s theme was Chinese identity – read more here.

In this personal essay, Pi3 reflects on her identity struggles in London — where she is physically away from the political oppression, yet fails to proudly assert her Chinese-ness.
🏅 This essay was a runner-up in NüStories’ essay contest on "Chinese Identity": nuvoices.com/2025/07/01/l...

I work in US policy – being Chinese is now an occupational hazard *Editor’s note: The following story was a runner-up in our first ever annual NüStories personal essay contest. This year’s theme was Chinese identity – read more here.

“I asked for empathy: for the room to consider what it is like to have American geopolitical interests blowback on their families.” In this piece, Frances Zhu Hisgen writes on how Chinese people in US policy are demonised amid rising foreign-policy paranoia nuvoices.com/2025/07/01/i...

Visiting her family shrine in Taiwan, Tara Sun Vanacore reflects on being half-Chinese, half-American. Reconciling with loss, she explores how Chinese identity continues through generations.

🏅This piece was a runner-up in our essay contest: nuvoices.com/2025/07/01/h...

In Hong Kong, domestic workers must walk a precarious tightrope. One stumble can be disastrous Foreign domestic workers are the backbone of working families in Hong Kong. But they live in precarious labor conditions, lack crucial legal protections and are highly vulnerable to exploration. We sp...

INVESTIGATION: I worked with @carlottad.bsky.social and her amazing team ⁦at CNN‬⁩ As Equals on this interactive story about the precarious conditions that domestic workers face in Hong Kong, where one misstep can lead to debt, detention and even deportation. Out now: edition.cnn.com/interactive/...

🎋 What does it mean to be "the right type of exotic"? In her book ‘Chinese and Any other Asian’, Anna Sulan Masing reflects on her experience of racialised gender and sexuality growing up half Malaysian in Britain. Read an exclusive excerpt on NüStories: nuvoices.com/2025/07/01/b...

Daughters Are Not Like Spilled Water | Los Angeles Review of Books Susan Blumberg-Kason reviews recent books about the aftermath of China’s one-child policy and the experience of women in contemporary China.

New review at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social by @susanbk.bsky.social on a new book by Barbara Demick & the 10th anniversary reissue of one by @letahongfincher.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/daug... cc @chinarhyming.bsky.social @nuvoices.bsky.social

👇 @nuvoices.bsky.social @uselesstree.bsky.social @pm-thornton.bsky.social (stay tuned for details on a couple of late October launch events in the Netherlands & UK)

Flick through the history books and you’d be hard pressed to find stories about British Chinese women. But in “I Am Not a Tourist”, Daisy J. Hung reminds us to remember. Read an exclusive excerpt now on NüStories: nuvoices.com/2025/06/12/b... @daisyhunguk.bsky.social