Xinlu Liang

Originally from the southern city of Guangzhou in China, Xinlu Liang specialized in creative writing at Sun Yat-sen University and earned a master’s degree in journalism from USC Annenberg. She is a bilingual reporter who excels at long-form features and has won two championships of national English writing competitions in China. Xinlu was a summer 2020 reporting intern on the COVID-19 team at the Los Angeles Times contributing to “The Pandemic’s Toll: Lives Lost in California” in partnership with the Pulitzer Center and USC. Her print and digital work have been featured in South China Morning Post, Reuters, Los Angeleno, LA TACO and Los Angeles Times. In her spare time, Xinlu can be found strolling food markets or binge-watching anime series. 

Los Angeles Times •

Xinlu Liang

Xinlu Liang was a summer 2020 reporting intern on the COVID-19 team at the Los Angeles Times who contributed to “The Pandemic’s Toll: Lives Lost in California” in partnership with the Pulitzer Center and USC. Originally from the southern city of Guangzhou in China, she specializes in creative writing at Sun Yat-sen University and holds a master’s degree in journalism from USC Annenberg. Her print and digital work have been featured in South China Morning Post, Reuters, Los Angeleno, Ampersand an
Los Angeles Times •

California coronavirus obituaries: Lives lost to COVID-19

Thousands of lives have been lost in the coronavirus outbreak, in cities and small towns, in hospital wards and nursing homes. The virus has moved across California, killing the old and the young, the infirm and the healthy. Some patterns have emerged. Large metropolitan centers such as Los Angeles and San Francisco appear to be the hardest hit. More than 28 thousand people have died in California. These are some of their stories, reported by Los Angeles Times staffers and six interns here through partnerships with the Pulitzer Center and USC.
Los Angeles Times •

The surprising story of the salesman who became L.A.’s first known COVID-19 patient

The family arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on the way home from a Mexican vacation that had been short-lived and unpleasant. They had been exhausted, the father was battling a nasty stomach bug, and even before they settled into their Cancun hotel, they got word of the sudden death of the wife’s mother in their hometown: Wuhan, China. The couple and their toddler son wanted to get back for the funeral and planned to be at LAX just long enough to switch planes. But as they passed th
Los Angeles Times •

With few options to get home, Chinese students abroad fall victim to ticket scams

Nicole Ma just wanted to get home. The Chinese student’s first year studying abroad at Syracuse University in upstate New York had been upended by the coronavirus. It was the end of March and her dormitory was shuttered, her classes had moved online, and the number of cases in New York was rising by the day. Ma saw no reason to stay. But she was stuck. Only a small number of flights was being allowed into China and Ma couldn’t get a seat. Four times she bought tickets on well-known travel webs
L.A. TACO •

‘The Sharp Reek of Gunpowder’ - How Chinese Americans Are Embracing U.S. Gun Culture ~

The sharp reek of gunpowder – sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter – floods my nostrils the moment I step into the Los Angeles Gun Club, a 50-foot indoor shooting range in downtown L.A., with three friends. I twitch my nose and glance around, my heart banging with the irregular gunshots 30 feet away behind the soundproof glass windows. The vestibule features safety instructions and colorful posters with autographs of celebrities including actor Ed Westwick and Tha Alkaholiks, an L.A. hip hop trio. A
Los Angeleno •

Chinese-Language Court Interpreters Shortage

The number of Chinese speakers in the state has multiplied, leaving L.A. County courts straining to serve a growing population. As soon as the divorce case at Department 87 of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse ended, Chinese-language court interpreter Nathan (Mintao) Huang pattered downstairs across Grand Park, ready to drive 14 miles to the El Monte Courthouse for a traffic case. On a typical day, Huang works on five cases at three courthouses spread out across Los Angeles County. Recently, he got
Annenberg Media •

China delays college entrance exam

Every morning, Li has students read the Chinese articles aloud in the video group in order to get familiar with the article. She has five lectures in the morning and two in the afternoon, all of which are approximately 20 minutes each. At dusk, it’s usually time for troubleshooting, followed by hours of homework that include students taking pictures of their homework and sending them to her. In the evening, when all is quiet, Li begins preparing for next week’s pre-recorded classes Now that all
USC Story Space •

Before the Parade Passes By

The new world of economics and support in LGBTQ+ LA There’s lots to see on Hollywood Boulevard, and if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you might miss the door to Junior High. The LGBTQ+ arts space has no door handle, just a few words stickered on the entrance and a translucent pink heart that barely shows through the mirrored window. It’s much more visible at night, when a pink neon light glows from inside and crowds gather outside on the sidewalk to mix and mingle. But on the inside, Ju
South China Morning Post •

Mainland universities take tough line against plagiarism

With the annual graduation season approaching, university students are facing the last hurdle on their way to earn a bachelor’s degree – dissertation’s “repetition rate”, a figure used by plagiarism detection tools to measure the similarity between articles and therefore represent a thesis’s originality. Universities, however, are taking tougher line with bachelor’s dissertations, echoing stricter requirements from the Ministry of Education to supervise postgraduate education after actor Zhai Tianlin’s notorious academic plagiarism case earlier this year.
South China Morning Post •

Reselling ‘old wine' in ‘new bottles’

Jinan University saw an unusual bachelor’s dissertation oral defense on May 22, when four students, whose group titled “Venus’s Medical Records”, from Department of Internet and New Media, School of Journalism & Communication, presented their graduate project in a brand new form – interactive game. As the first batch of students from the department, they developed an interactive game called “Bad PUA Investigation Report”(《不良PUA调查实录》), targeted at PUAs, or “Pick-up Artists”, which refer to lovelorn bachelors who learn a variety of skills to seduce and prey on women.
South China Morning Post •

A look at the booming coffee industry

For two decades, the Seattle-based coffee giant coming all the way to China across the Pacific has planted the seed of coffee culture in the traditionally tea-drinking country. And now the fruit is ripe. Chinese consumers are dabbling at diverse coffee products, such as instant varieties, capsule coffee and bulletproof coffee. Some domestic rivals of Starbucks have fluxed in the market in recent years, with Coffee Box and Luckin Coffee taking the lead.
South China Morning Post •

‘Online scalpers’ cheat mainland students

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, around 413 million trips by rail will be made during this year’s Spring Festival travel rush. The soaring demand for train tickets can hardly be met by 12306.cn, the official booking website of China Railway. Passengers are at their wit’s end to grab a ticket by various means, among which the most popular one is third-party online booking platforms, or ticket-snatching apps. Users of such plug-ins need pay extra money to cut ahead of others. To increase probability, they are allured to purchase “enhanced packages” that allegedly help lift the chance of getting a ticket through sophisticated technology.
South China Morning Post •

Here's how new law will affect e-commerce operators + Mainland tech firms use apps to teach English

1) China’s first e-commerce law took effect on the first day of 2019 to better regulate the prosperous online shopping market, which jeopardizes the interests of e-commerce operators, especially “daigou” (代购), or freelance retailers. 2) The past 2018 has witnessed a thriving online paid knowledge providing industry which entices a shoal of Chinese young users eager to learn and willing to pay, as shown in the English learning apps that make up half of the top 10 paid-for apps in the Apple app store in China.
South China Morning Post •

More students seek higher degrees for better jobs

“Finally I don’t have to get up at 7 every day!” When Duan Xia stepped out of the examination room, she sighed in huge relief. As an English major from Sun Yat-sen University, she had just finished a long battle with the national preliminary postgraduate entrance exam. And she is just 1 out of some 2.9 million Chinese who sat the exams from Dec. 22 to 24 this year. According to the Ministry of Education, it outnumbered last year by 520,000.
South China Morning Post •

University students learn tricks of the trade at Canton Fair

University students usually serve at the fair as interpreters or as volunteers. As interpreters, they either work for buyers or exhibitors and get a daily wage of about RMB300. Their first business is to facilitate the intercultural communication between foreign buyers and Chinese exhibitors, or vice versa. Volunteers, however, often work in teams of organization, logistics and publicity.