Our Women in China

Since late 2006, James Fallows has been providing regular coverage on China for The Atlantic Monthly. His first piece for the magazine was subtitled "Our Man in Shanghai..." and the retro phrase caught our eye not only for its imperial overtones (the frequency with which it is used to describe newspaper reporters is unnerving, since the phrase calls up Graham Greene's title, Our Man in Havana, a book about nothing so much as bad intelligence), but also for its gender implications. After all, "our man in China" is just as often a woman (as has been the case in the past; for instance, this report--dated language intact--from Time on their reporter Annalee Jacoby). Here are a few we follow regularly.

1. Luisa Lim has been reporting for NPR for more than two years, and her in-depth reporting has covered forced abortions, Thames Town (outside Shanghai), and her own difficulty reporting in China.

2. At the Wall Street Journal's "China Journal," Sky Canaves tracks the daily trends from Hong Kong.

3. Maureen Fan at the Washington Post makes an effort to include regular people in her detailed reports.

4. Luisa Lim is not alone at NPR. Not only has NPR created a homepage, "China: In the Spotlight," but this recent report on land seizures after the earthquake at "Marketplace" (broadcast on NPR) indicates that Lisa Chow is another lively voice on public radio (the end of the report, when Chow catches the party secretary red-handed attempting to seize local land, is alone worth a listen).

5. We've mentioned Sexy Beijing (and its frontwoman Anna Sophie Loewenberg) at China Beat before. Recently, though, Loewenberg has been doing features for "All Things Considered" (also on NPR). Listen here or view the full episode at YouTube.