Authors In The Media With Emily Feng

Late 2024/early 2025, I had the pleasure of reading a copy of Emily Feng’s memoir Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity And Belonging In Xi Jinping’s China & doing an interview with Emily which you can read by clicking this link https://booknotions.com/qa-with-emily-feng/ . Emily has now returned as we go in depth about her career in journalism as an NPR Correspondent.

Q: It’s great to have you back for another interview Emily! Where did your passion for journalism come from?

 A: Most journalists likely will say this, but it doesn’t make the following less true: I simply love telling a good story. I get a huge thrill discovering and reporting out a gripping story, regardless of the topic.  I also love the writing process, because you write knowing that you are trying to recreate the thrill for someone else to access.

Q: Did you go to college to get a journalism degree, or did you apply for a job as soon as you graduated high school?

A: I did not study journalism, was not very active in the student papers, and did not apply for journalism jobs. I started looking into journalism because I loved writing, but I soon realized I was not talented or stubborn enough to be a fiction writer. I explored literary nonfiction – writing about real people in a literary manner – but magazine journalism was already withering when I entered the job market in 2015. My other interest at the time was China, and I already spoke Mandarin Chinese. Journalism because a vehicle through which I could explore the world and learn more about China. Pretty rapidly, I realized I liked the craft of journalism itself as well!

Q: In our Q&A last year, when I asked if journalism helped in writing your book you wrote; Being a journalist teaches you how to write quickly, on deadlines, and how to organize your thoughts in a coherent manner. But journalism also teaches you to remove yourself from the scene – but my publisher kept insisting (correctly) to write more about how each of the stories impacted me. Do you prefer journalism writing more or book writing more, or is there no competition?

A: I like both, and right now I have the mental bandwidth for both. I see the two as two sides of the same coin – telling a good and accurate story – but they exercise two different kinds of storytelling. I love having the breaking news deadlines in journalism while also having a long-term project to work on.

Q: What’s it like being a correspondent for NPR?

A: It’s the best job in the world for me, right now. I have amazing colleagues who really focus on craft and storytelling in addition to rigorous reporting. It’s demanding and fast-paced and we constantly do not have enough time and people to cover all the stories we want to do, but the challenge is what makes the job so rewarding.

Q: This next question is my favorite one to ask authors who are (or were) journalists! Could you name a few people you’ve interviewed and discuss what those experiences were like?

A: I loved interviewing Sheng Wang recently. The comedian in real life sounds exactly how he does in comedy. At first, I felt a little shy asking him about his hair (listen to the interview) but it led the conversation into such a comfortable, honest conversation. https://www.npr.org/2026/05/02/nx-s1-5800868/comedian-sheng-wang-on-finding-joy-in-the-mundane

Q: Would you give links to all your social media accounts so the readers of the blog and I can follow you and your work?

A: Author page: https://www.npr.org/people/705255512/emily-feng

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/emilyzfeng.bsky.social

Instagram: @emily_z_feng