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The ResponsibleChina Team:
- Erica Lee Schlaikjer, Founder and Editor
- Mark Hiew, Chengdu Correspondent
- Sophia Mendelsohn, Shanghai Correspondent
- Van Yang, Beijing correspondent
Erica Lee Schlaikjer, Founder and Editor
My name is Erica Schlaikjer, a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, IL, where I double-majored in journalism and international studies. I was born in Fairfax, VA, and subsequently moved around the world as the daughter of a U.S. Foreign Service officer and aboriginal Taiwanese mother. I have lived in Guangzhou, China; Taipei, Taiwan; Beijing, China; Geneva, Switzerland; Hong Kong, S.A.R. and Germantown, Md., where I attended public high school. I am currently based in Chicago.
I have held several magazine internships at local, national and international publications, including The Chicago Reporter, Crain’s Chicago Business and National Geographic. I also served as editor-at-large for Abroad View magazine, a student-run, non-profit magazine about global education and study abroad.
In the fall of 2005, I withdrew from school for three months to live in Shanghai, China, where I interned at Shanghai Talk, an English-language city living magazine. I also pursued an independent research project, courtesy of the Medill-sponsored Eric Lund Global Research & Reporting Grant, focusing on China’s Internet youth culture. While working and living abroad, I traveled to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Beijing and Nanjing.
In February 2007, I was honored with a foundational scholarship from the Overseas Press Club, and I hope to pursue a career in international journalism.
Beginning in January 2008, I will be studying Mandarin at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan, thanks to the Taiwan Ministry of Education’s Huayu Enrichment Scholarship for Chinese language training. You can read about my experiences at makapahai.wordpress.com.
This is my first blog.
Please feel free to contact me:
erica [at] responsiblechina [dot] com
If you are interested in contributing to this blog and being part of the Responsible Community, please send 2-3 writing samples and a short email describing your interests.
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Mark Hiew, Chengdu correspondent
My name is Mark Hiew. I am currently based in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where, in addition to writing, I teach English and study Chinese. I moved to Chengdu in August 2007. Prior to that, I worked in the knowledge management unit of CHF International, an international development NGO based in Silver Spring, Md. from 2005 to 2007.
I was born in Perth, Western Australia to Chinese-Malaysian parents. I moved to Ellicott City, Md., where I completed high school and received a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Maryland at College Park.
During college, I was heavily (and remain somewhat) involved in policy advocacy on issues related to global HIV/AIDS, youth empowerment and comprehensive sexuality education, serving as a community organizer on the International Youth Leadership Council for Advocates for Youth, a sexual and reproductive health rights NGO in Washington D.C. and Student Global AIDS Campaign, a branch of the youth-led NGO Global Justice.
I covered the UN GA Special Session on AIDS in May 2006 for the blog Reproductive Health Reality Check and was a member of the international media team for the Toronto YouthForce at the International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Toronto in August 2006.
I currently sit on the board of Advocates for Youth and volunteer online for Taking IT Global, an information communication technology for development (ICT4D) NGO based in Toronto. I write on local Chengdu affairs for Chengdoo magazine, the city’s premier English language publication and keep an occasional personal blog (”Flatnose in China “).
I am particularly interested in youth activism, social entrepreneurialism and the economics of sustainability.
I once had a mullet, which I cut off in exchange for donations to a Fuel-EfficientStoves project in Darfur.
My favorite Sichuanese phrase is: “Hao fao!” (”how annoying!”)
Contact me:
mark.hiew [at] gmail [dot] com
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Sophia Mendelsohn, Shanghai correspondent
My name is Sophia Mendelsohn, which the Chinese translate into “Su Fei.”
I am living in Shanghai and have been for three years. Each year we watch as the city grows increasingly international, but becomes a little grayer up above our heads. It is no doubt that you can see the pollution building in our city. There are other positive changes, too, though, like the new advertisements in the subway stations reminding us to use fewer plastic bags.
Before SH, I lived in Kunming, China (all the way South) and Harbin, China (all the way North). I still have a soft spot in my heart for Harbin. How could you not for a place where they BBQ outside all Siberian-winter long and keep their ice cream frozen in snow banks instead of freezers?
I have traveled quite a bit in Asia, and although my career belongs to China, my favorite country to travel to has been India. I recently volunteered there with a non-profit organization that helps eradicate slave labor in the silk industry. One of their creative CSR ideas was to sell the “clean” silk to guided tours and other trappings of the booming tourist industry in the area. The money was fed back to support education and micro-loans for the workers.
I work in export and manufacturing and spend a fair amount of time in factories outside of major cities in China. Everyday I see opportunities for us to save on costs and reduce waste, without stopping progress. My previous job was in corporate communications where my favorite projects always had to do with CSR and sustainability. The power consumers have to move these things forward cannot be underestimated. Remember: you are the customer.
I speak, read and write Chinese at an extremely advanced level and majored in East Asian Studies in university in America. All together I have been in Asia four to five years. This is my first blog.
Contact me: sophia.mendelsohn [at] gmail [dot] com
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Van Yang, Beijing correspondent
Van is a strapping young lad born in Taiwan and raised in Chicago. He attended Lawrence University, a liberal arts college in Appleton, Wisc., for his undergraduate degree. Abandoning his early childhood dreams of becoming a Indiana Jones, his studies soon focused on environmental policy, history, and philosophy, and he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government and political science.
His passion is for urban planning and green building. In 2005 he worked with the International Institute of Sustainable Development and co-authored “Growing into Risk: Emerging Environment and Security issues in China” He has worked with the US Green Building Council to promote market-based green building initiatives in China, serving as a interpreter and guide for CEO Rick Fedrizzi, and on the International Hosting Committee of the Greenbuild conference.
Van believes his greatest contribution will come from his background in IT business consulting and being a big nerd. He is currently working with Green Dragon Media on a documentary to inform the world about the complicated issues that China faces as well as the efforts that China has made to strive for sustainability.
Van has traveled much of the world: he has snowboarded on the slopes of France, rollerbladed in the streets of Switzerland, windsurfed around the islands of Greece, bartered through the markets of Turkey, endured the hellish trains (yet mouth-watering food) of Bulgaria, explored the monasteries of Japan, and found stillness in the mountains of Bhutan.
Each morning, Van looks to create a healthy, balanced life for himself and others. You can find out more about him and his escapades at http://www.vanyang.com .
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