Naaman Zhou

New York, Sydney

Editorial Staff Member at The New Yorker

Copy editor at @newyorker. Previously a reporter at @GuardianAus

Articles

Stop! Newspaper Thief!

Aug 19, 2024 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

There are a lot of valuable things out on the street these days. Porch pirates swipe packages. Lift a catalytic converter from a Prius—between the engine and the muffler—and you can flip it for a thousand dollars. But what if you’re looking for a more regular income stream? Some newspapers now go for four dollars an issue—six on the weekend. Could that be money for the taking?
Mourning Flaco, the Owl Who Escaped

Feb 26, 2024 | newsbreak.com | Naaman Zhou

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Mourning Flaco, the Owl Who Escaped

Feb 26, 2024 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

The life of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo, and who died this past Friday outside a building on the Upper West Side, can be divided into two main chapters. Chapter 1 spanned nearly thirteen years, mostly in the zoo—first in the Temperate Territory near the snow leopards and red pandas, and later opposite the loud chiming of the Delacorte Clock. The second started when Flaco spotted a hole in his cage, evidently made by a vandal, and departed.
Lola Kirke Walks the Line

Nov 27, 2023 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

“The song is kind of like an explanation of why someone from New York could love country music,” Kirke said. She was wearing boots with horseshoes on them and a red flowery dress. The song is a boot scoot, so a custom dance just made sense. Fittingly, the evening’s students were a crew of New York line-dance fans, who convene every week in the back room of a nearby Ukrainian restaurant. “People are line dancing all over the place,” Kirke said. “We just don’t know.
My Grandmother and the Canine Detective

Oct 28, 2023 | newsbreak.com | Naaman Zhou

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My Grandmother and the Canine Detective

Oct 28, 2023 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

“Rex” débuted in 1994, the year I was born, and ran for eighteen seasons over the course of twenty-one years. A standard episode takes forty-five minutes and follows the titular dog, Rex, who is part of a crack homicide unit in Vienna. (The show was originally filmed in German.) Rex’s colleagues include a lead detective who changes every three to four seasons; an earnest deputy; and a bumbling third guy who stays at the station.
The Failure of Australia’s Attempt to Create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament

Oct 19, 2023 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

The path to the latest question—whether to recognize Indigenous people in the constitution and give them a voice to parliament—which went to the people and lost, on Saturday, started more than half a decade ago, near the foot of Uluru, the enormous red-rock formation that stands at the center of the country.
This World Cup Left Its Mark on Australia

Aug 19, 2023 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

Losing a World Cup semifinal is supposed to be England’s thing. (There’s a line in “Three Lions,” the country’s unofficial soccer anthem, about it.) For roughly half of this match, England, the current European champions, and Australia, the competition co-hosts, were roughly even. In the sixty-third minute, Australia’s captain, Sam Kerr, one of the world’s most devastating strikers, dribbled for forty yards, then half chipped, half blasted the ball thirty yards, into the English goal.
The Thrill on the Ground at the Women’s World Cup

Jul 28, 2023 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

As in the U.S., soccer in Australia has long been a nondominant sport. Cricket, Australian-rules football, and two different kinds of rugby have often shouldered it aside.
Sam Kerr and the Dream of an Australian World Cup Title

Jul 19, 2023 | newyorker.com | Naaman Zhou

Afterward, Kerr hugged her teammates and exchanged the customary back pats. Game-changing goals are routine for her—they seem to define the entire season for others. Like all of soccer’s great strikers, Kerr has a full menu of ways to score; commentators like to call it a knack, or an eye for goal. But, with Kerr, it’s all about motion. “Next time you watch her play, see who makes the first movements,” Emma Hayes, her coach at Chelsea, once said.