20 for 20: Newsweek Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu
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In 20 for 20, we profile 20 movers and shakers who, much like The Beijinger, have called the capital home for 20 years or more.
Newsweek’s Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu once considered Beijing a stop on her way to living around the world. Over 20 years later, she’s in awe of how Beijing has changed, whether how the culinary scene has developed or the diversity of the population. Besides her work taking Liu to places both historical and new, during her time here, she turned her curiosity about the American aviators who spent time in China during WWII into a short documentary film. But it’s really been Liu’s chance to witness Beijing’s evolution while visiting ancient sites that have sustained her interest over the years.
What brought you to Beijing, and when?
I'm currently on my second posting in Beijing. In 1998 I was Newsweek's State Department correspondent in D.C. Thanks to my previous posting, I knew China and spoke Chinese and the magazine sought me out with an offer. The person who was supposed to be the next Beijing Bureau Chief had suddenly quit. Did I want to take the job for about a year, at which time I then could have my choice of Asian assignments? (At the time I was keen to live in Southeast Asia). My first stint in Beijing began back in 1980; Newsweek had hired me to open its first Beijing Bureau so I became one of the youngest members of the first wave of American foreign correspondents allowed to live and work in the Chinese capital since 1949. My stay in Beijing from 1980 to late 1982 convinced me China was an important (if challenging) story, so I jumped at the chance to live and work here a second time in 1998.
The Beijing that became my home in 1998 was totally different from the city today (and light years removed from the Beijing of the 80's). In the late '90s, some Chinese were just beginning to get rich, and the seemingly limitless potential of the Internet evoked a buoyant mood. It was a China that mixed both old and new. I traveled to remote and hardscrabble minority communities in Western China, then returned to a city that was embracing advanced technologies. Foreign journalists encountered restrictions, of course, but we could still work on in-depth and unique stories. I spent months reporting on a Chinese man who specialized in tracking and rescuing kidnapped women sold as "brides" to villagers far from home; at one point I found myself financing an expedition to free a young Sichuan woman who had been held against her will.
Did you imagine at that time that you’d still be here 20 years later?
Absolutely not. I agreed to come to Beijing on condition that it would be temporary; at first I'd committed to just one year. At the time, I was keen to live in Jakarta, Singapore or Bangkok and to travel alot in Southeast and Southwest Asia. But after a year, budget cuts hit, the media industry was changing, and there were fewer and fewer U.S. correspondents who could speak Chinese. As a result, I wound up working here for 23 years straight – total serendipity
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Tell us about one of your quintessential first experiences in the city.
As a sort of welcoming party, my predecessor invited me and some friends to a picnic at the Silver Pagodas, nestled in the foothills outside Beijing. The stone pagodas are spectacular, with some dating back to the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). The sky was bright blue, with scudding white clouds, and the mountains formed a perfect backdrop for the ancient Buddhist structures. In those days the rural site was wide open, and we drove our cars nearly all the way to the pagodas to lay out blankets for a picnic. I remember thinking how few large cities could boast of such an idyllic yet remote setting little more than an hour's drive away.
With colleagues in front of Mao Zedong's Maosoleum, Tian'anmen
What’s changed the most since you first arrived?
The variety and quality of restaurants – and who's eating in them. in the late '90's, finding an international-standard French or Indian or Thai meal was a rare treat that not that many local Chinese could afford. But today the sky's the limit, and Chinese can certainly pay. Recently I enjoyed an exquisite meal in a gorgeous venue, where the Chinese chef combined Western and Eastern elements with great creativity and flair; she had trained in Spain. I never experienced fermented bean curd in such a stylish setting! Unlike in the '90's, such fabulous meals aren't catering only to expats; the majority of diners are prosperous Chinese.
How do you think Beijing has changed you as a person?
I embrace change and serendipity much more than had I been living in a less dynamic and more predictable city. In Beijing you wake up each morning and suddenly you have a vast population of enormous diversity (age, social background, profession) doing things out there that you may love (or may hate) but which are all fascinating. Not all of what's happening is good, of course – and people who want to interact with a smooth and comfortable environment devoid of mavericks and visionaries should not live in Beijing.
Having worked as a journalist all my life, I gravitate towards places that fascinate me. By dint of its size, complexity, scope and impact, Beijing is one of few cities where I'm constantly surprised, delighted or challenged by things happening around me or people that I meet. Beijing is a much more significant and fascinating story for journalists than many other world capitals (And it can be very challenging for foreign journalists, without question.) That dynamism and element of surprise is why, year after year, when I've been asked to stay on in Beijing, I have. Beijing's a tough act to follow. when I travelled to smaller and more staid cities – back in pre-COVID days when international travel was so routine – I was easily bored.
Name your three favorite places in the city (aside from your home), could be restaurants, parks, cafes, tourist attractions, neighborhoods, experiences.
Inside the city, I love the hutongs – not the heavily restored touristy ones but the quiet, authentic alleyways where many original inhabitants still reside. One of the best places to learn about the "hutong" world is the Shijia Hutong Museum. Outside the city center, one of my favorites is the Imperial Tile Kilnworks at the tiny village of Daolingjian, in the valley of the Ming Tombs. The courtyard has a chaotic hodge-podge of roof tiles in the shapes of mythical animals; each creature has a supernatural responsibility and title, such as the "storm-summoning fish". If I want an outing that includes a meal, I'd go to the Wild Wall at Huanghuacheng. It has breathtaking views. Once some friends and I set up a portable folding picnic table (with benches attached) near the edge of a steep drop, so we could play mahjong on the Wild Wall and enjoy the panorama. Someone won with a rare hand and a couple of us stood up suddenly to look at it – which caused the entire table contraption to collapse, sending mahjong tiles flying through the air. We narrowly avoided falling over the precipice ourselves. With no more table to play on, we trooped down to a rural guesthouse for a delicious meal of cumin-barbequed trout, thin slivers of deep-fried potato, and corn cakes.
What’s one piece of advice you have for relatively recent arrivals (within the last year)?
Beijing takes some adapting to. Give it some time. The first six months can be challenging. Even before COVID there was a fair bit of red tape involved with opening bank accounts, getting your household in order, adopting non-Western technologies such as WeChat, dealing with schools etc. If you can take advantage of the amazing experiences that Beijing offers, you may wake up one day realizing you love the place. If you find yourself constantly yearning for a city that makes life easier for you, or which caters more to Western expats, then Beijing isn't the most appropriate home for you. It is, above all, a Chinese city.
Twenty years ago I was a full-time journalist and war correspondent, so I traveled constantly and extensively. Often I spent weeks or months outside China, reporting on the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, for example, or witnessing the US-led "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad from the Palestine Hotel. These days I'm no longer covering those conflict zones, and for the past two years the pandemic has restricted my travel largely to trips inside China. From Beijing you can visit fantastic places on a day trip. Recently I went to the Niuheliang archeological dig in Liaoning province which produced exquisite carved jade artifacts; I caught a high-speed train in the morning and returned to Beijing by dinner time. In 1998, I came to Beijing on a quest for experiences and people who catered to my sense of intellectual curiosity. That part of my life hasn't changed.
READ: 20 for 20: Jing-A Brewing's Alex Acker
Images courtesy of Melinda Liu
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