Make China Relatable
Welcome to Elephant Room - An Independent Media Project to Make China Relatable.
Founded in 2017, Elephant Room’s mission is to be the third space in the English world of China reporting:
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A narrative that is neither Westernized nor oriented toward official propaganda;
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A project that is independently operated by emerging Chinese journalists and culture-lovers;
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A corner that is small, cozy, and, more importantly, genuine.
The backstory goes as follows:
In 2017, Biyi and Yan, freshly in their mid-20s, returned to their homeland, China, after years of studying in the U.K. and U.S. Astonished by the country's rapid development yet deeply confused by many aspects of it, they decided to start a blog, which later became a newsletter, to write about, well, China.
Eight years have passed. Biyi and Yan have undergone many changes in their lives, but these changes pale in comparison to what has changed in our world: a great pandemic, the development of AI, the collapse of globalization, and much more.
During this turbulent time, Elephant Room went on and off as Biyi and Yan explored their personal life possibilities and matured into their 30s. For a while, Elephant Room went into stealth mode—a project they still deeply cared about but didn’t know how to integrate with their own career paths and life changes in China.
In 2024, Biyi embarked on Master’s studies in Hong Kong in pursuit of a degree in Journalism. This experience was life-changing in many ways, but most importantly, it helped Biyi connect with classmates in the program who were equally enthusiastic about China reporting. As Biyi and her classmates discussed their own life goals and what they saw as missing in the landscape of Chinese journalism, it became clear that an opportunity was presenting itself: Elephant Room could sail off again, now with help from these outstanding young journalists as contributors.
So Elephant Room continued as you see it today—an open project with many (and growing!) young contributors who are aspiring media professionals and journalists. We are united here as team members of Elephant Room by two things: a profound curiosity about real peoples' stories, and our love for the land and the people with whom we are connected—China and the Chinese.
Welcome to Elephant Room.
