Here you can find links to highlights of my published work. Unfortunately, most of my work writing under Ren Qiuyu (my Chinese name) at Caixin Global is behind a paywall (I do have my own versions, but they are on my external hard drive, which is stuck in Beijing). For a pretty comprehensive list of my bylines under my Chinese name, check out muckrack.
In 2020, I began contributing SEO blog posts for Grace + Ivory, a social enterprise that makes made-to-measure wedding dresses. I have also worked on the brand’s outreach and messaging.
July 14, 2020:
Planning Your D.C. Wedding: 14 Amazing Vendors in the DMV
By Olivia Ryan
Did your quarantine boo turn into your life boo? Did lockdown confirm that, yes, this is who you want to lock down with…forever? Are you yearning for the end of social distancing so that you can finally plan your post-covid, post-crisis, post-lockdown wedding?
Read the full blog post at Grace + Ivory.
May 29, 2020:
Social Impact: How Your Grace + Ivory Wedding Dress Gives Back
By Olivia Ryan
Grace + Ivory proudly champions for women and girls all over the world. We’re a social enterprise and are committed to supporting women and girls in need, currently through Plan International’s The Girls’ Fund. Through their wedding dress, our brides support Plan International to achieve its goal of transforming the lives of 100 million girls by 2022.
Read the full blog post at Grace + Ivory.
December 12, 2019:
China Must Start Putting Quality Ahead of Quantity to Attract Overseas Students, Experts Say
By Ren Qiuyu
Available on Caixin Global here.
Although china now hosts the third-most international students in the world, education experts in the country see a long road ahead for improving the quality of programs on offer — as well as the quality of the international students enrolling in them.
October 12, 2019:
Trump Promises to Deal with Chinese Students’ Visa Woes
By Ren Qiuyu
Available on Caixin Global here.
U.S. President Donald Trump promised to deal with the difficulties that Chinese students are having obtaining U.S. visas, denying speculation that Washington wanted to block Chinese from studying in America.
March 4, 2019:
Chinese Support Wind Turbines, Just Not in Their Backyard
By Ren Qiuyu (available from Caixin Global here)
Chinese city-dwellers may be somewhat resistant to building wind turbines in urban areas, a new survey has found, with a surprisingly high proportion of people citing an unfounded fear of radiation as driving their concerns.
The survey — the largest ever poll of Chinese public opinion toward wind generators — was carried out by researchers at the University of Virginia and Stanford University, and published online in February by the peer-reviewed international journal Energy Policy.
Wind power is a promising renewable energy, particularly in China, which leads the world in wind energy power generation and has set ambitious future goals for the technology.
“As the wind industry further develops in China, there might be more wind turbine deployment in more urban areas,” Shiran Victoria Shen, now an assistant professor of environmental politics at the University of Virginia and the lead author of the report, told Caixin.
Overall, the survey found that many people lack exposure to and knowledge of wind energy and its generators, though many respondents voiced their support for further development of the sector. But the respondents also seemed unwilling to have wind turbines installed near them, a “nimby” or “not-in-my-backyard” attitude that Shen said she and the other authors of the report had expected.
“We know there is already a nimby attitude for chemical plants and waste incinerators,” Shen said. “Some survey respondents are supportive of wind energy development, but some resent the idea of wind turbines being close to them.”
The resentment occurs for a variety of reasons, the report says, including worries about noise, direct cost or impact on wildlife. However, 30% of the respondents said they were concerned about radiation coming from wind turbines — something that was not raised by the researchers in their survey, who called that “unusual.” Additional experimental surveys found respondents would be more assured by government statements that wind turbines do not pose any radiation danger than by statements from the scientific community.
Other than radiation the claims — which have been debunked by researchers — the sensitivities appeared more poignant than those observed in other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of mostly wealthy countries.
The survey found that less wealthy neighborhoods may be “more receptive to placing wind turbines in or near their communities, especially if doing so comes with monetary incentives provided by the government.”
Chinese policymakers want wind power capacity to reach 400 gigawatts by 2030 and 1,000 gigawatts by 2050. In 2018, the nation generated 366 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from wind energy, according to official data from the National Energy Administration.
While the government has provided subsidies to build wind farms, many are operating at low capacity as there are enough transmission lines to carry the generated electricity from rural farms to urban centers. But the nation is getting better at using its wind-generated electricity, wasting only 7% of the kilowatt-hours generated in 2018. It has also taken concrete steps toward increasing the competitiveness of wind-generated electricity.
Urban areas will likely gain more wind turbines in the future, though these may take the form of smaller, “vertical” turbines that generate less energy, but are less visually imposing and less lethal to birds.
The researchers found vertical wind turbines may meet less resistance if local governments highlight their strengths, such as the turbines being shorter, quieter and more wildlife-friendly than the giant, three-pronged “horizontal” turbine.
The Chinese government can promote wind energy deployment “because it can provide relevant information to reduce potential public resistance,” the report says, emphasizing that the government is well-placed to stymy unfounded fears about radiation.
July 13, 2018:
With 9,000 Bottles of Dirty ‘Spring Water,’ a Chinese Artist Gets Results
By OLIVIA MITCHELL RYAN and ZOE MOU
Read the article on The New York Times
June 25, 2018:
After John Oliver’s Jokes About Xi Jinping, China Blocks HBO Website
by TIFFANY MAY and OLIVIA MITCHELL RYAN
Read the article on The New York Times
March 15, 2018:
A Bar Street Falls Quiet as Beijing Puts a Limit on Foreigners
by OLIVIA MITCHELL RYAN and STEVEN LEE MYERS
BEIJING — Most nights, a mixed crowd of young Chinese and foreigners, many of them students, cram the sidewalks along Caijing Dong Street, drinking alcohol and snacking on street food to the sound of thumping music as they course from one club to the next. Recently, though, there has been a more subdued vibe.
Read the rest on The New York Times
October 19, 2017:
Environment, Security, Power: What China’s Changing Vocabulary Reveals About Its Future
by CHRIS BUCKLEY and OLIVIA MITCHELL RYAN
Chinese leaders lay out their plans in speeches dense with jargon and slogans. But their vocabulary can be deeply revealing. Here’s a guide to how China’s leader, Xi Jinping, used key terms in his report to a Communist Party congress on Wednesday, and how that compares with his predecessors’ words.
Keep reading on The New York Times
Olivia M Ryan 