Suzanne Ma Online

Blogging on China and the Chinese in America

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 | posts

Hello, world. I’m finally starting up a new blog. It’s been awhile. I was an avid blogger years ago during my first year of university. I wrote about some news but blogged mostly about my personal comings and goings. This time around, I’m going to be blogging about two of my interests that have developed over the years: China and the Chinese in America.

My interest in Chinese Americans stems from being born and raised in Toronto (where there is a huge Chinese population) and growing up in a Chinese American household. My parents, Chinese immigrants, raised me in the best of both worlds. Homemade Cantonese soya sauce chicken one night. Lasagna the next. I have always felt close to Chinese culture and grew up with the conversational Cantonese and Mandarin language skills. Through high school and my undergraduate degree, I yearned to improve my language skills. While I could converse, I could not read and write. I felt incomplete and in many ways, barred from fully understanding China and Chinese culture. In addition to my personal urgings, China began to dominate news headlines and understanding this place became all the more important.

In September 2007, I moved to Beijing and enrolled in the Chinese language program at Tsinghua University. For a year, I spent my days and nights studying and on holidays, I traveled throughout the country.

I returned to America in September 2008 to start my Master’s at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. I began reporting in Manhattan’s Chinatown and in early March, finished a 6,000 word magazine feature on Fujanese immigrant mothers in Brooklyn. In June 2009, I’ll be reporting for the Associated Press in New York, with a special focus on the city’s Chinese community.

I am going to continue learning about China and about America’s Chinese immigrants. Some day, I’d like to go back to China and report as a foreign correspondent. On this blog, I will share interesting news on China, my thoughts on various China-related topics, and some of my own reporting, too. Please visit often. I hope you’ll find the blog enlightening, informative and entertaining.

Tags: Associated Press, China, Chinese Americans, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, immigrants, Suzanne Ma

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