While based in Beijing Muyi Xiao works as a photojournalist for Tencent, the biggest online media outlet in China. She covered the missing flight MH370, the Sinopec oil pipeline blast, a cult religion called ‘Mighty God’, among many other stories. She also worked and continues to work on long term documentary stories and multimedia projects covering topics like child brides in the Yunnan Province. Now, working as a fulltime freelancer she is focusing her efforts to become an independent storyteller.
Born in Wuhan, China, Xiao is a freelance photojournalist and storyteller. In 2015 she received a Magnum Foundation Human Rights Fellowship, which allowed her to join six other fellows from Haiti, Syria, Ukraine, South Africa, Palestine, and the Philippines to study at NYU’s Tisch school for the Arts over the summer. Xiao will continue her photographic education this fall at the International Center of Photography’s New Media Narratives program.
Many photojournalists rely on the basic protections of freedom of speech and freedom of the press to move freely, to access their subjects, and to bring their images to the public. But what is it like to photograph and report in the People’s Republic, where censorship is the norm and journalists often face more restrictions than regular citizens?
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