Lavender Au's profile photo

Lavender Au

Beijing, London

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Words @nybooks @WIRED @TheTimes @VogueMagazine DMs open for commissions

Featured in: Favicon businessinsider.com (+1) Favicon yahoo.com (+5) Favicon thetimes.co.uk Favicon wired.com (+1) Favicon coindesk.com Favicon vogue.com Favicon wired.co.uk Favicon nybooks.com Favicon technode.com Favicon wired.jp

Articles

  • His boss gave him an alarm clock for his 7-year work anniversary. It became the catalyst for 3 major life changes.

    4 weeks ago | businessinsider.com | Lavender Au

    ​Nathan Huixiang Zhang left his office job in Canada to move back home to China. ​Nathan Zhang 2025-03-27T01:57:35Z Facebook Email X LinkedIn Copy link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . Nathan Huixiang Zhang, now 52, got an alarm clock as a seven-year work-anniversary gift in Canada.

  • His boss gave him an alarm clock for his 7-year work anniversary. It became the catalyst for 3 major life changes.

    4 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Lavender Au

    5 hours agoOn a hot, humid Thursday night in Saitama, China's national football team hit its lowest ebb. With a minute left on the clock and trailing Japan 6-0, Chinese defenders were likely wishing for the sweet relief of the final whistle. But Japan's Takefusa Kubo was not feeling charitable. After watching …

  • A millennial living in Beijing missed his hometown flavors. So, he opened a restaurant and started serving them himself.

    1 month ago | businessinsider.com | Lavender Au

    Small Business Wu Zhixun (right) left his acting career to open a restaurant in Beijing with Qu Fei (left). syrenchanphoto This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . Wu Zhixun left his hometown and his job at a local bank to spend his 20s pursuing an acting career in Beijing. He entered his 30s ready for a career change and noticed Beijing lacked the flavors of his hometown.

  • ‘Are you like us?’

    2 months ago | lrb.co.uk | Lavender Au

    A standard English textbook in China asks students to compose a letter from someone called Li Hua to their British friend Allen, inviting him to a music festival. When the US ban on TikTok briefly came into effect earlier this month, nearly three million ‘TikTok refugees’ signed up to the Chinese app RedNote (Xiaohongshu). Many of them were asked by Chinese users if they’d received a letter from Li Hua. RedNote was one of the first apps I downloaded when I moved to Beijing in 2023.

  • Trans People in China Face Barriers to Gender-Affirming Care

    Jan 23, 2025 | foreignpolicy.com | Lavender Au

    Health Human Rights China Kevin Lee’s father used to grunt in affirmation if someone asked if Lee was a girl. He did the same if someone asked if Lee was a boy. Growing up in the 1980s in Guiyang in southwestern China, Lee was relatively withdrawn, in part because he didn’t know what gender he was.

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Lavender Au
Lavender Au @lavender_au
30 Jan 25

RT @LRB: ‘This is the first time that many ordinary Chinese and ordinary Americans have had direct conversations, unimpeded by the Great Fi…

Lavender Au
Lavender Au @lavender_au
25 Jan 25

RT @ForeignPolicy: Parental support is crucial in China, where trans people need parental consent to undergo gender-affirming surgery and c…

Lavender Au
Lavender Au @lavender_au
5 Oct 24

RT @thedialmag: 3/ In China, the U.S. election is “tea table gossip,” an entrepreneur, whose circles include factor owners and investors, t…