In October 2018, I applied for and was thrilled to receive a $500 Gordon and Ila Mills Communications Project Award from the BYU School of Communications. This grant helped fund my senior year capstone project: a look at the Chinese-language newspapers produced in and around San Francisco.

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The idea for the project grew out of my research on Chinese-language newspapers in San Francisco and from discovering that some of the newspapers were founded or owned by people in the U.S., while others originated in China and seemed to still have direct or indirect ties there. I became interested in exploring if any of these Chinese-language newspapers in San Francisco are censored the way they would be in China, and if that, in turn, has any impact on U.S. press freedom. That question also opened a number of others in my mind: How do these newspapers view themselves and each other? How do they fit into the overall media landscape in San Francisco? How does the Chinese/Chinese-American community view censorship, press freedom and the media in general?

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A capstone project is meant to showcase all of a what a student has learned during his or her education, and as I've been the recipient of phenomenal teaching and mentoring from the BYU School of Communications, I intended to use all I'd learned and then some. I also knew going into this project that it would be unlike either of my two previous reporting trips simply because this time, I would be handling all of the reporting, photography, filming, graphics production and writing myself.

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However, I didn't realize exactly what I'd gotten myself into until I started looking for contacts in San Francisco. I quickly discovered that the Chinese/Chinese-American community in San Francisco is very private, at least in regards to media, and there were several times I seriously wondered if I had made a mistake in choosing a topic that turned into a bigger challenge every day I pursued it. 

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Somehow, though, after literal months of borderline-begging for interviews, pushing the dates of my trip back several times and occasionally wanting to hit my head against the wall, my interviews fell into place. And not a moment too soon, either — by then, it was the week before my trip. 

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Despite the stress of handling such a huge and difficult project largely on my own, San Francisco still turned into a fantastic reporting experience that was on par with my prior two trips. I fell madly in love with San Francisco's Chinatown, from its unique sounds and smells to its distinct architecture and its gorgeous Chinese characters that made me feel like I could actually be in China.

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Though I found this community to be private, I also found it to be so kind and giving, and I'm deeply grateful to all of my sources who took the time to share their knowledge, experience and insights with me. I also owe special thanks to my lovely mother, who came to San Francisco with me at her own expense simply so I wouldn't be alone in a big city, and who followed me all over creation helping me carry video and photography equipment.

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Although I came away from the trip feeling that I was barely scratching the surface of a much, much bigger iceberg than I could see, I also learned more than I knew I could about Chinese-language newspapers and press culture in San Francisco. Click on the link below to read my project, and keep scrolling to see pictures from the trip: