Starting with just a Google doc link, NüVoices has grown to encompass a podcast, a magazine and events across the world.Jens Schott Knudsen
Eight years ago, Joanna Chiu pressed ‘post’ on a tweet that would end up affecting nearly a thousand people.
At the time, Vancouver-born Chiu was working in Beijing as a China and Mongolia correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP). She’d been living in China for five years and had noticed the glaring lack of Asian women speaking at events and on panels for issues related to China.
“It became such a norm that I would be watching panels of mostly white men educating Asian people about China,” Chiu explains. “These men are all very knowledgeable, but I want to hear from some women as well.”
Chiu looked to Twitter to help crowdsource a solution. She posted a link to a Google Doc titled “Greater China Female Experts Open Directory” and invited people to add their recommendations for women who were experts on China.
“Overnight, it took off,” she recalls. The tweet went viral and the directory had gathered over a hundred entries shortly after it was posted. “Lots of people were realizing the inequities and how almost comical it was that women were so sidelined from China conversations.”
Soon after the directory was created, event organizers and other journalists began using it to find sources and panelists.
“People were telling me: ‘I’m finding really good experts here that other media or journalists or organizers aren’t always asking, so I’m getting a fresh, very informed voice’,” she recalls.
“People say it was elegantly solving a problem. We took a positive approach to it, where it wasn’t just shaming organizers or journalists, but giving them a tool.” Chiu saw momentum building around the directory.
“We were thinking how else, besides a directory, can we celebrate women’s work?” That led Chiu to start the NüVoices collective and a weekly podcast. “We intentionally interview the people who don’t typically get asked to be on broadcast media,” she explains.
The podcast releases new episodes bimonthly and has been downloaded over 78,000 times.
Their first guests were two Chinese news assistants for foreign media. “It was almost taboo at the time to acknowledge how much of foreign media’s work was done by Chinese journalists who couldn’t get bylines and who were paid a very tiny fraction of what foreign correspondents get paid,” she says.
Shortly after starting the podcast, NüVoices launched an online magazine called NüStories. “We wanted to make sure that women and BIPOC voices get in traditional media and events, but we also wanted to take it on ourselves and create our own publication,” says Chiu.
Meanwhile, local chapters of NüVoices began launching around the world, in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, Europe, Washington, D.C., New York and Toronto.
Chenni Xu, a communications professional who worked in Beijing, and a friend of Chiu at the time she posted that first viral tweet, started the New York chapter in 2018 when Xu moved back to her hometown. She helps organize events like book launches, panels and social events for members and guests. Xu also co-hosts the podcast with other network members and has witnessed the impact that NüVoices has had.
“A bunch of people got full-time jobs because of the work they did at NüVoices,” she explains, citing two podcast producers who have obtained roles at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and Politico EU. Another NüStories contributor landed a book deal based on the article she wrote for the magazine.
In 2024, Xu became chair of the NüVoices volunteer board, where she manages their directory of over 700 China experts and fields the dozens of source requests that come into their organization every month. This year, as board chair, Xu hopes to obtain more funding for NüVoices to offer more paid opportunities, and better pay, to its podcast and magazine contributors, as well as hosting more events and conferences.
“Right now, it’s more important than ever to get everyone’s perspective in, especially as we tilt more towards a ‘manosphere’ world,” Xu says. “Our mission has become more important than ever.”
Chiu also feels showcasing diverse voices is necessary in today’s political climate, when news is fast-moving. “With Trump picking on Canada, China and Mexico, it’s a time of erratic unpredictability,” she explains.
Chiu says it’s common for event organizers or outlets, when they’re in a rush, to reach out to their go-to person on speed dial. That person can often be a white male.
“That’s when we find that only certain voices get heard and represented,” Chiu says. “Given Trump’s history of xenophobic rhetoric about China, we want to hear from people who have lived in China or have cultural backgrounds related to China.”
