Cecily Huang is a Beijing-based writer, journalist, and public affairs professional. She previously worked for The Guardian and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and currently serves as Public Affairs Manager at the New Zealand Embassy.  She writes nonfiction exploring identity, cultural change, and life across post-communist and fast-transforming societies.

My parents hoped I would choose something stable—law, as my father imagined, or nursing, as my mother wished. Instead, I became myself: a bilingual journalist and writer shaped by two cultures, now based in Beijing and working at the intersection of media, diplomacy, and storytelling.

I nearly became a lawyer after finishing law school, but I realised the courtroom wasn’t where my voice belonged. I left that path, spent all my savings (and even my dowry money) on a master’s degree in journalism in Australia, and stepped into a life shaped by curiosity rather than certainty.

After graduating from the University of Technology Sydney, I joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Beijing bureau. For five years, I produced daily news, long-form features, and documentaries about China’s shifting politics, society, and culture. Before that, at The Guardian’s Beijing office, I reported on environmental, political, and social issues—from the Sichuan earthquake to ethnic protests in Inner Mongolia. These years taught me how to tell difficult stories with empathy and precision.

In 2021, I moved into public affairs as the Public Affairs Manager at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing, where I lead social media strategy, public diplomacy projects, and large-scale engagement campaigns reaching millions of people.

My work focuses on shaping cross-cultural dialogue and presenting New Zealand’s stories to Chinese audiences with honesty, nuance, and creativity.

Across all of these roles—reporter, producer, editor, public affairs manager—my interest has always been the same: how people live, adapt, and make meaning in times of transition.

Outside of work, I travel widely, dance salsa, bachata and tango, cook obsessively, and photograph the small details of everyday life. I believe in embracing change, building layers of selfhood, and finding stories in unlikely places.

Thank you for reading. I hope our paths cross someday.

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