This week, NüVoices host and co-founder Joanna Chiu joins China human rights researcher Maya Wang to discuss the current state of China human rights advocacy amid Beijing's growing transnational oppression and the US cut of international aid. 

Joanna and Maya also discuss China's latest approach to Xinjiang and other ethnic minorities, and the global rise of extremism and political polarization. In a world of chaos, unreliable leadership and rising technological authoritarianism, what is the future of China human rights advocacy?

This week, host Solarina Ho and her guest, 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 theaters across the United States. 

The intimate film follows a middle-aged couple and Wang Zhenxi, a "Mistress Dispeller", who is hired by the wife to end the husband's affair with a younger woman. Solarina and Elizabeth discuss the film's meditative exploration of relationships, how Wang inserts herself into this couple's life, and how the couple — and the mistress — navigate the complex dynamics and emotions of marriage and infidelity, and their place within broader Chinese society. Elizabeth also discusses the painstaking, years-long process of finding her central characters, and the remarkable trust and sensitivity required that allowed her to tell their stories.

This week, NüVoices editor and board member Jessie Lau speaks to returning guest Barbara Demick about her new book, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins.

In this episode, Barbara describes the journey of writing about twin sisters who were born in China, forcibly separated, and finally reunited through her investigative reporting. She and Jessie discuss how the book explores the historical and political nuances regarding China's One Child Policy and Family Planning institution, as well as challenges common narratives about Chinese adoptees in the US. Barbara also zooms into the powerful, emotional moment of the sisters reuniting and the two families meeting for the first time.

This week, Tiffany Ap speaks with Grace Shao on the causes and development of AI in China.

In this episode, Grace Shao walks us through the divergent approaches to AI deployment in China and the US, the domestic AI talent in China and the future of robotics. Grace also talks about running her newsletter AI Proem while providing consulting to tech companies and raising a toddler while being 8 months pregnant on the podcast.

This week, we have NüVoices host and board member Sophia Yan in conversation with Amanda Hsiao, director in Eurasia Group’s China practice.

In this special episode, Sophia talks to Amanda on the new and old tactics used by Washington and Beijing in the latest rounds of US-China trade disputes.

This week, host Tiffany Ap gets in the weeds on how to live a more eco-conscious life with Sonalie Figueiras, the founder of Green Queen and Asia's leading sustainability voice.

In this episode, Sonalie explores Asia’s pivotal role in climate and food tech innovation, shares practical eco-friendly tips, and reflects on whether we're witnessing a cultural shift away from overconsumption.

This week, we have co-hosts Chenni Xu and Solarina Ho in conversation with Wenchi Yu on the current landscape of the US-China-Taiwan relationship and working as a bridge-builder in this arena.

In this episode, Wenchi discusses how her identity is the throughline of her career in labor rights, civil rights, diplomacy, media and non-profit leadership from being  Hakka in Taiwan, to the US, to Mainland China and back to the US again.

This week, we have host Stephanie Tam in conversation with Anne Anlin Cheng about her book, Ordinary Disasters: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority, which debuted in September 2024 and was published by Pantheon.

In this episode, Anne discusses her journey from academic scholarship to a personal, deeply vulnerable "new kind of writing." After decades of teaching as one of the foremost scholars of race, literature, and aesthetics at Princeton University, a series of personal and political crises led Anne to grapple with what it means to live firsthand as an Asian American woman in our world. Stephanie and Anne talk about the challenges of "finding your voice" in the first person, the double bind of the model minority myth, and the problem with how Americans think about who deserves social justice — "as though attention to nonwhite groups, their histories and conditions, is only as pressing as the injuries that they have suffered." Anne also shares her personal experiences of grieving her father, a tragic series of student suicides, and the complexities of interracial marriage. Finally, Stephanie and Anne explore what it takes to find and sustain an "ordinary faith" in the midst of all these "ordinary disasters."

This week the NüVoices podcasting team is thrilled to share a special crossover podcast episode from Jane Perlez' Face-Off: The U.S. vs China, on "Feminist Rebels". This is the fifth episode in the podcast's second season, focusing on the feminist wave in Greater China and where we stand now. The NüVoices podcast interview with Jane aired on February 13, 2025 and can be found here: https://nuvoices.com/2025/02/13/nuvoices-podcast-117-career-in-foreign-correspondence-with-jane-perlez/. Thank you to hosts Jane Perlez, Rana Mitter, and special thanks to Maggie Taylor for letting us cross-post this episode. Enjoy the episode and we’ll be back in April.

(Description below courtesy of Face-Off. Episode was originally aired on March 11, 2025.)

China’s leader, Mao Zedong famously said that “Women hold up half the sky.” But these days it doesn’t feel that way in China. Unfair marriage rules, difficulties getting a divorce, barriers to owning property and many more restrictions are challenging women to speak out, and act. We’ll hear about the Chinese “leftover women” who are veering from the traditional path and about the Chinese feminists of today.

Guest:  Leta Hong Fincher, author, Leftover Women. 

Recommended Books: Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China by Leta Hong Fincher

Tiananmen Square by Lai Wen

Sound design, original score, mixing and mastering by Rowhome Productions. Rowhome’s Creative Director is Alex Lewis. John Myers is Rowhome’s Executive Producer.

This week, NüVoices co-founder and host Joanna Chiu spoke to returning guest Emily Feng about her new book, Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China. 

In this episode, Emily and Joanna discuss her recent reporting trip to Syria, how her waiting at the Beijing Airport inspired her to write a book about identity in China, and how important the idea of being Chinese is to non-Chinese people and government policies. Emily also talks about her approach to journalism and why she insists on revealing the soft sides of Chinese people who went through some most challenging and difficult events in the wake of censorship and government control.