About

I’m the crazy woman who gave up her life as a news reporter in New York City

…and moved to Chinese countryside.

It sounds crazy, I know. But I had my reasons.

I wanted to write a book. But not just any book. A book that was well researched. A book that followed people through time and space. A book about Chinese immigration, happening now, right before our eyes.

With the help of a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, I began work on a book project in 2011 about Chinese emigration to Europe. My research brought me to Qingtian County on the east coast of China — a place that has a more than 200-year history of migration to Europe.

I had one very specific goal in mind: to get to know Chinese migrants who were on the verge of making that pivotal, life-changing voyage abroad. I would talk to them about their dreams and hopes and fears and watch them as they prepared to leave the only home they’d ever known. Then, in Europe, I would find them again.

In the fall of 2011, with the help of friends and family who generously supported me on Kickstarter, I visited Chinese communities in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

And I was successful in tracking the arrival of a young 17-year-old migrant from Qingtian. When I found her, she was polishing glassware and serving up coffee in bar, 70 km south-west of Venice.

In this blog I mostly write about China, the Chinese diaspora, and about immigration and migration.

My stories have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the National Post, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and the Associated Press.

I am a graduate of Ryerson University’s School of Journalism and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Contact Me

Email:  suzannebma[at]gmail[dot]com