Hannah Beech | |
---|---|
Occupation | Journalist |
Hannah Beech is an American journalist. Since August 2017, she has been the Southeast Asia Bureau chief for The New York Times based in Bangkok. [1] She formerly worked for Time magazine; Beech specializes in Asia, and was sometimes credited as Time's Southeast Asia bureau chief. [2] Beech graduated in 1995 from Colby College. She did undergraduate internships at U.S. News & World Report and Asian media outlets. [3] She was the 1994 recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship for Maryland. [4]
In 2009, Beech was awarded for Excellence in Reporting Breaking News, Honourable Mention, in the Society of Publishers in Asia Awards for Editorial Excellence (SOPA Awards), for her reporting on Cyclone Nargis in Burma. [5] She also received a 2007 Honourable Mention for Best Opinion Writing. [6] Beech and eleven other journalists from The New York Times shared the 2020 Gerald Loeb Award for Breaking News for their article, "Crash in Ethiopia". [7]
Beech's June 2020 article, "Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward", attracted widespread criticism in social media platforms and news outlets across Southeast Asia. In the article, Beech describes mangosteens as "an exercise in disappointment", states that durian stank of "death", and concludes that many of the region's native fruits hovered "between delectable and decayed". Written approximately half a year into the COVID-19 global pandemic, Beech also likened the shape of rambutan to coronavirus: "With its crimson skin studded with green feelers, the egg-sized fruit bears more than a passing resemblance to a coronavirus." [8]
While the article attracted criticism in traditional and social media platforms across Southeast Asia for its reliance on racist tropes to portray the region's food cuisine, it is also notable for having generated debates amongst journalists about the need for greater diversity in the news industry. [9] [10]
Beech's February 2021 article, "No One Knows What Thailand Is Doing Right", was criticized as racist towards Asian people by several writers and professors. In the article, Beech speculates that Thailand's relatively low number of COVID-19 cases can be explained by the Thai people's genetic immunity to the virus rather than first acknowledging the government's pandemic response. [11] Sri Lankan writer Indi Samarajiva argues that such coverage "attributes agency to rich/white nations like Germany or New Zealand but luck to anyone poorer or dark. And it's just not true. Poorer nations have done better than the rich because they had robust public health responses. Because they worked together. Because they reacted early. These are all lessons worth learning, but the west is unable to learn them because they're simply too racist to see." [12] In an article published by the Social Science Research Council, Professor Jonathan Corpus Ong of the University of Massachusetts Amherst also condemns Beech's article for "perpetuating Orientalist frames". [13]
During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Beech sparked controversy again by characterizing China-dominated sports such as shooting, weightlifting, table tennis, diving, and badminton as "less prominent sports" that are "perfected with rote routines", in contrast to more "prominent" sports won by Americans that "involve an unpredictable interplay of multiple athletes". [14] [15] She also portrayed Chinese athletes as factory-like products created by "China's sports assembly line" and concludes that the weightlifter Liao Qiuyun has been traumatized by the system. Science writer Ke Nan accused Beech's article of racism and dehumanization, adding that the majority of US gold medals also come from three non-team based sports: swimming, athletics, and gymnastics. [16] Ke also criticized Beech for omitting any reference to the history of sexual violence against women athletes in the US in her comparison between Simone Biles and Liao Quiyun. [17]
Beech is married to journalist and author and freelance reporter Brook Larmer, and they have two sons.
Mangosteen, also known as the purple mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree with edible fruit native to Island Southeast Asia, from the Malay Peninsula to Borneo. It has been cultivated extensively in tropical Asia since ancient times. It is grown mainly in Southeast Asia, southwest India and other tropical areas such as Colombia, Puerto Rico and Florida, where the tree has been introduced. The tree grows from 6 to 25 m tall.
Ching chong, ching chang chong, and chung ching are ethnic slurs used to mock or imitate the Chinese language, people of Chinese ancestry, or other people of East Asian descent perceived to be Chinese. The term is a derogatory imitation of Mandarin and Cantonese phonology. The phrases have sometimes accompanied assaults or physical intimidation of East Asians, as have other racial slurs or imitation Chinese.
Asian Australians are Australians of Asian ancestry, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from various regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the proportion of the population identifying as Asian amounted to approximately 17.4 percent with breakdowns of 6.5 percent from Southern and Central Asia, 6.4 percent from North-East Asia, and 4.5 percent from South-East Asia.
Racism in Asia is multi-faceted and has roots in events that have happened from centuries ago to the present. Racism in Asia may occur from nation against nation, or within each nation's ethnic groups, or from region against region. The article is organised by countries in alphabetical order.
The durian is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio. There are 30 recognized Durio species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. Durio zibethinus, native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species available on the international market. It has over 300 named varieties in Thailand and 100 in Malaysia as of 1987. Other species are sold in their local regions.
China–Thailand relations officially started in July 1975 after years of negotiations. For a long time, Thailand, formerly called Siam, had good relations with China. China was usually greatly respected in Siam and ensured the alliance of both countries. However, after Plaek Phibunsongkhram attempted to erase and prohibit Chinese culture and influence in the country, relations were seriously damaged.
The terms British East and Southeast Asian (BESEA) or simply East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) are used to refer to people in the United Kingdom (UK) who identify with the cultures and ethnicities of East and Southeast Asia. The 2021 United Kingdom census recorded a total of 834,262 people who were born in East and Southeast Asian countries residing in the United Kingdom. This was split near evenly with 417,318 from the Southeast Asian region and 416,944 from the East Asian region.
Racism in the United Kingdom has a long history and includes structural discrimination and hostile attitudes against various ethnic minorities. The extent and the targets have varied over time. It has resulted in cases of discrimination, riots and racially motivated murders.
Racism in Thailand is a prevalent problem but is only infrequently publicly discussed. The United Nations (UN) does not define "racism"; however, it does define "racial discrimination": According to the 1965 UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, "...the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life." Thailand has made two submissions to the Convention, with ongoing issues including government policy towards ethnic groups, especially the Thai Malays, and the country's lack of racial discrimination legislation.
Coconuts Tabloid Media was a multi-national media company across Hong Kong that published a network of local city websites and documentary videos online. The company served ten cities and countries across South East Asia, namely Bangkok, Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bali and Yangon, covering local news and cultural trends. Coconuts Media used social media and video platforms to increase its reach. In addition to English, the company produces content in Thai and Bahasa Indonesia.
Frontier Myanmar is a news and business magazine published in Yangon, Myanmar, owned by Black Knight Media Co. Ltd which also runs a content marketing agency called Black Knight Media Group. It operates an English language magazine, an English language website, and a Burmese language website. Frontier Myanmar mainly focuses on local politics and business.
Anti-Thai sentiment involves hostility, discrimination or hatred that is directed towards people in Thailand, or the state of Thailand.
The COVID-19 pandemic was first reported in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. The origins of the virus have subsequently led to an increase in acts and displays of sinophobia, as well as prejudice, xenophobia, discrimination, violence, and racism against people of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent and appearance around the world. With the spread of the pandemic and formation of hotspots, such as those in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, discrimination against people from these hotspots has been reported.
Weijia Jiang is a Chinese-American television journalist and reporter. She is based in Washington, D.C., and has served as the Senior White House Correspondent for CBS News since July 2018. Jiang's question to President Donald Trump about the COVID-19 testing program in the United States during a White House press briefing received global attention and coverage.
Jason Szep is an American journalist with Reuters who received the Pulitzer Prize in 2014.
Myanmar Now is a news agency based in Myanmar (Burma). Myanmar Now journalists publish bilingual Burmese and English articles on an eponymous online news portal. The agency provides free syndication throughout the country, with a distribution network of over 50 national and local media outlets that regularly republish its stories. As of September 2019, Myanmar Now had a readership of over 350,000, and a team of 30 journalists. The news service is noted for its in-depth reporting on high-impact issues, including corruption, child labor, human rights, and social justice.
Alexi Jo McCammond is a political journalist and currently an opinions editor at The Washington Post. She served as an NBC and MSNBC contributor, a contributor for PBS's Washington Week. She was a reporter for the political website Axios. McCammond appeared on 2020's Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Dr Diana Yeh is a British Chinese sociologist, writer, curator, arts worker, and a prominent social and political activist in the United Kingdom. She is regarded as a leading expert on the history of British Chinese artists, and on racism and anti-racism, particularly in relation to Chinese diasporas. Yeh is a regular commentator on these issues, appearing frequently in interviews for international's news outlets.
In the Western world or in non-Asian countries, terms such as "racism against Asians" or "anti-Asian racism" are typically used in reference to racist policies, discrimination against, and mistreatment of Asian people and Asian immigrants by institutions and/or non-Asian people.
Hannah Beech, our Southeast Asia bureau chief, spent part of her childhood in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.