Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Vanessa Piao
Transgender Man Was Unfairly Fired, but Bias Not Proved, Chinese Court Says
BEIJING — In what has been described as China’s first case involving transgender discrimination in the workplace, a court in the southwestern province of Guizhou has ruled that the plaintiff was illegally fired but that there was no proof his dismissal was a result of bias against transgender people.
When China Wants Better Air Readings, Cotton Does the Trick
The scheme was simple: Stuff cotton into air-monitoring equipment so that the air being read would be filtered and seem cleaner. The people doing this to produce better — but false — air-quality readings in Xi’an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi, got away with it for months, until inspectors noticed irregularities in the data.
A Chinese Scholar on the Changing World of the Yugur Nomads
A Yugur sheep herder in Gansu Province, northern China. In recent years, the central government has tried to resettle the traditionally nomadic Yugurs in more permanent homes. There are fewer than 15,000 Yugurs in China, making the ethnic group one of the smallest of the 56 officially recognized by the government. For centuries they were nomads, moving among pastures at the foot of the snowcapped Qilian Mountains in Gansu Province.
Grandson of China’s Most-Hated Landlord Challenges Communist Lore
When he travels to the town of Anren, where his grandfather’s manor was turned into a museum in 1959 to showcase evil deeds he is reported to have committed, Mr. Liu gives impassioned speeches to visitors, pointing out which exhibits — essentially, all of them, he says — are fake.
Wings Over Iraq
Every Army software program ever (see DTMS, etc). #DCGS #Palantir:"Part of the problem with DCGS, alleges Palantir, is that the Army’s system consists of too many contractors producing too many software products that are all smushed together. 'The Army itself has used the term ‘Glue Code’ to describe this approach,' the company says."
China Cracks Down on News Reports Spread via Social Media
The agency said it had already warned and punished nine websites, among them the popular news sites of Sina, Ifeng, Tencent, Caijing and 163. The agency’s announcement could be interpreted as a government mandate requiring Chinese news organizations and online publishers to adhere to stricter standards of journalism and truthful reporting.
Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s First Female Leader, Is Assailed in China for Being ‘Emotional’
Sinosphere President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan speaking at a meeting in Taipei on Wednesday of her Democratic Progressive Party. By Javier C. Hernández and Vanessa Piao May 25, 2016 BEIJING — An article by a Chinese military official suggesting that Taiwan’s new president was “extreme” and “emotional” because she was unmarried provoked an outcry on Wednesday, undermining the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to win allies across the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese Panel Rules Against Plaintiff in Transgender Job Discrimination Case
Mr. C holding the ruling by an arbitration panel that rejected his demand for a month’s pay and a written apology for what he said was discrimination because he is transgender. BEIJING — A labor arbitration panel in the southwestern Chinese province of Guizhou ruled on Tuesday against a transgender man, the plaintiff and his lawyer said, in what has been described as the country’s first transgender job discrimination case.
Judge in China Rules Gay Couple Cannot Marry
BEIJING — A judge ruled on Wednesday against a gay couple who had sought the right to marry, in China’s first court case addressing the issue of same-sex unions. The couple, Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang, filed a lawsuit against a civil affairs bureau in Changsha, Hunan Province, in southern China, after the office refused to grant them the right to marry when they tried to register in June 2015.
Job Discrimination Case Raises Questions of Transgender Rights in China
Mr. C, left, and his lawyer, Huang Sha, at a court in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, on the day they filed a job discrimination case. The banner reads: “I want to work!” BEIJING — A labor arbitration panel in the southern province of Guizhou held a hearing on Monday in what is being described as China’s first transgender job discrimination case. A ruling is expected this month in the case, brought by a man born a woman, who said his former employer fired him for wearing men’s clothes.
Rural Water, Not City Smog, May Be China’s Pollution Nightmare (Published 2016)
A woman after washing clothes in a canal in Hebei Province, China, in 2013.
Giant Maoist Slogans Form Core of Chinese Director’s New Film
BEIJING — A low-flying drone glides at full speed over gravel scattered on a swath of desert near Hami in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang. The desolate expanse betrays little sign of human habitation. But the drone ascends and, gradually, the stones cohere into shapes that clearly show human intervention, and the ghost of Mao Zedong.
China, Facing Land Shortages, Encourages Saving Space 6 Feet Under
A worker tending graves at a public cemetery in Shanghai. The Chinese government is urging burial arrangements that will conserve land and protect the environment. BEIJING — Whether you are alive or dead, the Chinese authorities have made clear that there is just not that much room for you.
Video Extols China’s Party Slogans, Turning to Rap and Beethoven
BEIJING — China’s Communist Party propagandists turned to rap and Beethoven this week in their quest to reach a target audience often rendered indifferent to dull party slogans by lifelong consumption. “It is everyone’s dream, to build a moderately prosperous society comprehensively,” goes the song in a cartoon video released by Xinhua, the state news agency.
Video extols China’s party slogans, turning to rap and Beethoven
“It is everyone’s dream, to build a moderately prosperous society comprehensively,” goes the song in a cartoon video released by Xinhua, the state news agency. It extols the “Four Comprehensives,” priorities that President Xi Jinping laid out in December 2014: • Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society, • Comprehensively deepen reform, • Comprehensively govern the country according to the law, • Comprehensively apply strictness in governing the party.
Couple’s Lawsuit Is First Test for Same-Sex Marriage in China (Published 2016)
Sun Wenlin, left, and his boyfriend, Hu Mingliang, in Changsha, China, on Wednesday.Credit...Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times By Edward Wong and Vanessa Piao Jan. 27, 2016 CHANGSHA, China — The two young men met through an online chat group. They began seeing each other every day. Long walks in the park. Movies and barhopping. Dinner with grandparents.
In first, Chinese court to hear same-sex-marriage case
Although some local officials have tried to signal their disapproval of the lawsuit — two police officers showed up in December to question the two men who are suing — the case has galvanized some gay-rights advocates in China. CHANGSHA, China — The two men met through an online chat group. They began seeing each other every day. Long walks in the park. Movies and barhopping. Dinner.
Hiding in Plain Sight as Beijing Disappears Into Blanket of Smog
Video A trailer shared by the Chinese artist Liu Bolin shows camouflaged dancers struggling as they fade into Beijing's smog on Dec. 20, two days before the winter solstice. BEIJING — As Beijing disappeared into the heavy smog shrouding the region in recent days, an artist covered seven models with body paint until they, too, faded against a desolate grove of trees on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Video Exemplifies Lawyer’s Civil Rights Campaign in China
Pu Zhiqiang, the Chinese civil rights lawyer who was given a three-year suspended prison sentence on Tuesday, had campaigned for years to draw attention to travesties of justice in China’s courts, which often suffer from political interference. For one such case he worked on before his detention in May 2014, he conducted a video interview with a disgraced official who said he was detained by Communist Party investigators without due process and was tortured during questioning.
Chinese Restaurant Bills Patrons for Clean Air
Chinese Restaurant Bills Patrons for Clean AirVanessa Piao And Patrick Boehler, The New York Times, Modified: December 16, 2015 12:03 ISTImage credit: Istock Has clean air become such a luxury in China that restaurants can charge patrons for it? That question was on many minds on Tuesday after Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that a restaurant in the eastern province of Jiangsu was doing just that.
In China, Diners Pay for Clean Air With Their Entree
Sinosphere A man and his child wearing masks to protect against heavily polluted air in Beijing last week. By Vanessa Piao and Patrick Boehler Dec. 15, 2015 BEIJING — Has clean air become such a luxury in China that restaurants can charge patrons for it? That question raged on Tuesday after Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that a restaurant in the eastern province of Jiangsu was doing just that.
Amid China’s Smog Worries, One More: Counterfeit Masks
People in Beijing wearing face masks on Wednesday. Such masks have become an increasingly common sight in China in recent years. BEIJING — As pollution darkened the skies above northern China this week, and Beijing declared its first red alert over the capital’s air quality, the state-run news media gave anxious readers one more reason to worry about going outdoors.
Q. and A.: Sha Yexin on ‘The Conscience of Hu Yaobang’
The Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, left, and Hu Yaobang, the Communist Party chief, saluting as they reviewed a military parade in 1981. With the Nov. 20 centennial of the birth of the Communist Party chief and political reformer Hu Yaobang, the playwright Sha Yexin felt it was time to write about the man he reveres — and who personally approved his application for party membership. Mr. Sha, 76, has long combined theater and politics.
Ending of One-Child Policy Takes Chinese to Social Media, and Some to the Bedroom (Published 2015)
BEIJING — The Chinese Communist Party’s historic decision to ease its restrictions on the number of children all married couples are allowed to have, turning its decades-old “one-child” policy into a “two-child” policy, was met with a cascade of discussion on Chinese social media Thursday evening. Among the tens of thousands of comments, some people announced that they would start trying to conceive a second child that night.
Zimbabwean President, Condemned by West, Is Selected for Chinese Peace Prize
A group based in Hong Kong that says it is the official organizer of the prize has selected Mr. Mugabe as this year’s recipient. Among the finalists for the award were Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, President Park Geun-Hye of South Korea and Bill Gates.
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe Is Awarded the Confucius Peace Prize
Photo President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, center, at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January. Read in Chinese | 点击查看本文中文版 President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has crushed political opponents in his country, overseeing the beating, intimidation and deaths of democratic challengers and their supporters. He has presided over economic policies that have resulted in rampant inflation and poverty.
Hong Kong Shopping Trip Turns Deadly for Mainland Tourist
Shoppers in the Causeway Bay shopping district in Hong Kong. The death of a mainland Chinese tourist has elicited criticism of “forced shopping” tours. Tensions in Hong Kong between residents and their compatriots from the Chinese mainland run high, with locals faulting mainlanders for repressive politics, rising property prices and bad manners.
Xi Jinping’s Speech on the Arts is Released, One Year Later
A year ago, President Xi Jinping discussed the role of the arts in China at a meeting in Beijing with leading artists, propaganda officials and representatives of the armed forces. In the days that followed, state news media released reports of officials diligently “studying” Mr. Xi’s speech, drawing parallels to a landmark talk on culture that Mao Zedong delivered in 1942. Zhao Benshan, a popular actor, was so moved by Mr. Xi’s words that he couldn’t sleep, according to state news media.
New blast underscores Chinese chemical-storage fears
Highways, homes and schools all over China are near warehouses licensed to handle hazardous substances. HONG KONG — The warehouse in Tianjin that exploded Aug. 12 was one of many buildings across China that store toxic chemicals near residential areas or major roads, in violation of safety regulations, according to a review of satellite imagery and public records. Highways, homes and schools all over China are near warehouses licensed to handle hazardous substances.
Tianjin Blasts Expose the Dangerous Proximity of Toxic Chemicals in China
SHANGHAI ANQING LUOYANG SHIJIAZHUANG DONGGUAN TIANJIN TIANJIN WEIFANG WUHAN TIANJIN ANQING DONGGUAN LUOYANG TIANJIN TIANJIN TIANJIN SHANGHAI SHIJIAZHUANG WEIFANG WUHAN By PATRICK BOEHLER, JOSH KELLER, K.K. REBECCA LAI, VANESSA PIAO and CRYSTAL TSE AUG. 21, 2015 The warehouse in Tianjin that exploded on Aug.
Beijing Court to Hear Suit Over Texts Calling Homosexuality an Illness
Chen Qiuyan, center, and four other students protesting the textbooks outside the Guangdong Education Department in March. A Beijing court has agreed to hear a student’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Education over textbooks that describe homosexuality as a mental disorder.
Chinês mostra em desenhos torturas que sofreu para confessar assassinato
As imagens, desenhadas Я mсo, sсo bizarras e perturbadoras. Uma delas mostra um homem trancado em uma jaula enquanto um policial derrama рgua fervendo na sua cabeуa. Outra mostra o homem suspenso no teto por algemas enquanto um policial bate no seu corpo com um bastсo elжtrico. Os desenhos sсo feitos de forma amadora, com rostos que mostram expressшes estranhamente neutras em meio a cenas de uma acentuada crueldade.
Drawings of Police Torture Seize China’s Attention (Published 2015)
The inscription on the drawing of the police abusing Liu Renwang reads: “Many people beat and tortured me countless times.”Credit...Courtesy of Liu Renwang By Vanessa Piao and Austin Ramzy Aug. 10, 2015 BEIJING — The hand-drawn images are bizarre and disturbing. One shows a man locked in a cage while a police officer pours boiling water on his head. Another shows him suspended from the ceiling by handcuffs as an officer jabs his side with an electric baton.
The picture of torture: Wrongfully convicted Chinese man draws attention to disturbing police tactics
The hand-drawn images are bizarre and disturbing. One shows a man locked in a cage while a police officer pours boiling water on his head. Another shows him suspended from the ceiling by handcuffs as an officer jabs his side with an electric baton. They are amateurishly drawn, with faces showing strangely neutral expressions amid scenes of severe cruelty. Yet they have captured public attention in China for their surprisingly candid depiction of abuse by the police.
The New York Times
The hand-drawn images are bizarre and disturbing. One shows a man locked in a cage while a police officer pours boiling water on his head. Another shows him suspended from the ceiling by handcuffs as an officer jabs his side with an electric baton. They are amateurishly drawn, with faces showing strangely neutral expressions amid scenes of severe cruelty. Yet they have captured public attention in China for their surprisingly candid depiction of abuse by the police.
The Selfless Lei Feng Is Back - as a Magazine
Lei Feng may be dead, but he lives on in print. The selfless soldier who became a propaganda icon in 1960s China has been revived in a cramped office in western Beijing, where a new monthly magazine supervised by the Communist Party’s People’s Publishing House was started in July.
Another Tiananmen Square Pops Up Outside Beijing Ahead of Military Parade
In the northwestern suburbs of Beijing, about 18 miles from Tiananmen Square in the heart of the city, villagers were surprised this year to see a replica of the square with its Gate of Heavenly Peace being erected on what used to be a military shooting range.
Turmoil in China's Stock Markets Takes a Psychic Toll
The symptoms, medical experts say, appear suddenly and often linger for months: insomnia, irritability, depression and an obsession with tracking stock prices.
Q. and A.: Xie Shi on the Brotherhood of Skateboarding in China's Far West
In the ethnically mixed region of Xinjiang, in China’s far west, tensions run high, and the government-promoted slogan that “Uighurs and Han are all one family” is not embraced by everyone. But Xie Shi, a 30-year-old photographer and skateboarder based in the eastern city of Nanjing, says that the skateboarding scene there is both ethnically diverse and more harmonious than the mainstream of society.
An Insider's Guide to Better Eating in Chinese Detention Centers
Photo Zheng Churan, one of the five women's advocates detained last March while preparing a campaign against sex harassment on public transport. When Zheng Churan, one of the “Feminist Five” whose detention in March made international headlines, was taken into custody, one of her greatest fears was about the food.
China Lets Citizens' Fingers Do the Talking to Report Graft
Mao once said, “Only by letting people supervise the government can the government remain effective.” The Communist Party’s top antigraft agency has apparently taken that to heart in its own wired way. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has added a new function to its mobile app and opened an online platform to allow citizens to report corruption, according to the commission’s website.
A Chinese Nurse Resigns, Bidding Farewell to Her Florence Nightingale Dream
Each May 12, on International Nurses Day, nurses in Chinese hospitals recite the “Florence Nightingale Pledge,” written in honor of the English social reformer and founder of modern nursing. This month, an online medical magazine published a resignation letter from a nurse, Yan Xiaobing, describing the harsher side of hospital life in China.
Unshaven and Proud: Winners of the Chinese Women's Armpit Contest
Six Chinese women who proudly posted photographs of their unshaven armpits online have been named the winners of a contest held to challenge the notion that women must have hair-free armpits to be attractive. Xiao Meili, 25, a women’s rights advocate who organized the contest, said she received 46 photos of unshaved armpits during the two-week contest that began May 26. Winners were selected based on the number of “likes” and “reposts” their entries attracted, she said.
In Women's Rights Battle, a Call to Underarms
As the summer warms up, bringing with it sleeveless tops, Xiao Meili, a women’s rights advocate, is collecting photos of women’s armpits. Her goal: to challenge a growing belief in China that a woman must have hair-free armpits to be attractive.
Pressure from Chinese Authorities Forces Ex-Detained Feminist to Shutter Organization
A women’s rights organization linked to two of the five Chinese feminists whose detention in March set off an international outcry ceased operations after pressure from the authorities led most of its staff members to quit and funding dried up.
Chubby Blue Cat Hints at Thaw in Ties Between China and Japan
The first Japanese film character to appear in Chinese theaters since tensions increased three years ago between China and Japan over disputed islands is a chubby blue cat. The character, Doraemon, is the star of a Japanese manga series first published in 1969, which was subsequently adapted into a long-running anime television series and 36 films.
Chubby Blue Cat Hints at Thaw in Ties Between China and Japan
The first Japanese film character to appear in Chinese theaters since tensions increased three years ago between China and Japan over disputed islands is a chubby blue cat. The character, Doraemon, is the star of a Japanese manga series first published in 1969, which was subsequently adapted into a long-running anime television series and 36 films.
Beijing Destroys Confiscated Ivory and Vows to End Trade
Photo A Chinese police officer watching over ivory products before their destruction Friday in Beijing. Updated, 2:33 p.m. | The Chinese forestry authority said on Friday that it would phase out entirely the country’s domestic ivory trade, making the announcement at an event in Beijing in which nearly 1,500 pounds of confiscated elephant tusks and ivory carvings were crushed.
Chinese Distiller Sued in Test of State Vs. Private Ownership
Many of China’s high-end liquor producers have experienced difficulties since President Xi Jinping assumed power more than two years ago and opened a campaign against official corruption and ostentatious living. But the state-owned Wuliangye, one of the country’s leading manufacturers of alcoholic beverages, now faces a problem with far deeper roots.
Q. and A.: Luo Yufeng, a.k.a. Sister Feng, on Life as a Manicurist in New York
When a New York Times investigation into the exploitation of Asian migrants working as manicurists in New York was published on the newspaper’s Chinese-language site recently, many readers in China asked on social media: What does Sister Feng think? Sister Feng, whose real name is Luo Yufeng, is an Internet celebrity with more than 4.7 million followers on Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform. In 2010, she moved to New York and worked there as a manicurist for four years.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Vanessa
Contact Vanessa, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack