My experience as a Chinese kiwi journalist
Abstract
Join us for a conversation with Portia Mao, a Chinese kiwi journalist who has worked for the Chinese Herald, Mandarin Times, The United Chinese Press (2004 – 2015) and as an independent journalist (2012 -2022) in New Zealand. Portia will discuss why she became a journalist, the stories she writes for the Chinese media and the difference between this work and her current work as an independent journalist. She’ll discuss the impact of WeChat on Chinese media and the articles that Chinese media are interested in and republish. Portia also works as a freelancer for English media and will discuss her coverage of victims’ families in the Sanlu milk crisis for TVNZ and the impact on victims who are now teenagers. She will also address her coverage of Pumpkin, the little girl who was abandoned in Melbourne by her father - Naiyin Xue – who fled to America after murdering his wife, Annie Liu. Portia has also interviewed the Chinese groups in America that assisted police arrest Naiyin and recently reported an update on the case and where Pumpkin is now. (Images: Mao Media, NZ Herald, Stuff)
About the speaker
Portia Mao, founder of Tui Media, an independent Chinese media based in Auckland, is a Qantas Media Award-winning journalist and an influencer in Chinese social media and the Chinese community. Portia immigrated to New Zealand in 1999, and she has been working as a journalist since 2004 when she got a Master’s degree in media studies from Auckland University. She has written extensively for the local Chinese language media and is a freelancer for English media, including the Herald on Sunday, Stuff, North and South, Asian Media Centre of Asia New Zealand Foundation and also with credits from the television current affairs programmes 60 Minutes of TV3 and Sunday of TVNZ, with whom she won a prestigious Qantas Media Award for coverage in China of the Sanlu milk scandal story in 2009. Portia has a deep understanding of Chinese culture and the New Zealand Chinese community.
Date: Tuesday 12 April 2022
Time: 4:00-5:00 pm
Zoom: https://vuw.zoom.us/j/99404715664