Meet Jiani Liu, the Young Writer Whose Debut Novel is Taking China By Storm
Jiani Liu's collection of stories touches on everything from being a Chinese student in America to cross-cultural relations.
In an age of intolerance and prejudice, fresh new voices like Jiani Liu's are at the forefront of fighting for cross-cultural understanding. As relations between the United States and China slowly unravel after decades of diplomacy, the tense standoff between the two countries has intensified, fostering a new era of bias, misconceptions, and scapegoating. Jiani Liu, the driven millennial set on changing the world one column at a time, fights back against this lack of empathy between the two countries in her debut book, Across The Sea.
Liu spends her time stock trading, working at her non-profit organization, Millennials of U.S.-China, and much like the rest of us, fawning over the latest fashion collections. But how did the young businesswoman start writing columns about everything from the concept of the ‘tiger mom’ and the Ivy League to the role of millennials and Gen Z in rebuilding the bridge between the East and West?
During her time at Brown University, Liu wrote a column for the China Business Network about her personal experience as one of the thousands of Chinese students attending college in the U.S. Liu's columns quickly became popular, racking up two billion page visits and catching the attention of CBN's chief editor. When he left CBN to start a new channel, Liu was chosen alongside 10 other authors in a collection of debut columns. Now the sole author of her debut book, Liu is one of the most-read millennial columnists in China.
Popular due to her frank narrative, Liu reflects the voice of a young globalized community facing the outdated misconceptions from previous generations. In striving toward the eradication of prejudice between the U.S. and China, her columns lead the much-needed discussion of what it means to live and succeed in a time of unease between the two nations. In calling both countries home, Liu aims to be a “vehicle to connect the two countries and change the misconceptions and biased perspectives.”
Touching on culture, education, feminism, and now the coronavirus pandemic, Liu asserts in her columns that while there are notable differences between the U.S. and China, the countries are actually quite similar, both placing an emphasis on education and paving paths for women to succeed in the business world. However, the deep racism that emerged from the fear surrounding the early spread of the coronavirus has clouded these cultural conversations and replaced them with a rivalry between both governments. Liu, in response to this, notes the importance of having these conversations through technology.
In deciding to focus her professional life in China following the string of strict immigration laws created earlier this year by the Trump administration, Liu has had space to “reflect and time to distil the most meaningful takeaways from [her] lived experience.” This reflective era will appear in the U.S. version of her book.
Buy now: Across the Sea (Chinese Edition), $24, Amazon