Dear All,
I’m delighted to announce that Jennifer Pak has joined NPR as China Correspondent. She has been hired for the NPR Beijing bureau.
Jennifer is a well-known voice to many, having reported from China for Marketplace since 2017. She has covered major stories, from U.S.-China tensions and the property bubble to the zero-COVID policy. Jennifer provided a first-hand account of life under a two-month lockdown for 25 million residents in Shanghai. Her stories and illustration of quarantine meals on social media helped her team earn a Gracie and a National Headliner Award.
Jennifer has been covering China and the region since 2006. She arrived in Beijing, fluent in Cantonese but did not speak much Mandarin. Jennifer picked up the language from chatting with Beijing cabbies. Her Mandarin skills got her a seat on the BBC’s Beijing team covering the 2008 Summer Olympics.
For six years, Jennifer was the BBC’s Malaysia correspondent based in Kuala Lumpur. She reported extensively on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and the country’s last three rhinos. Jennifer’s work went across BBC TV, radio and digital platforms. Her stories have also appeared in the Financial Times, NPR and CBC.
Jennifer returned to China in 2015 to establish a news bureau for the UK Daily Telegraph in Shenzhen, covering the city’s maker movement and its rise as the “Silicon Valley of hardware.”
Jennifer is Canadian and got her start in radio in Grande Prairie, Alberta, where she experienced -58F weather for the first time. She drove a half-ton pickup truck to blend in — something she has since tried to offset by cycling and taking public transport whenever possible.
Jennifer speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and gets by well in French and Spanish.
Please join me in welcoming Jennifer to NPR.
Cheers,
Didi