This story just gets more interesting by the minute. Via @fightcensorship, we’ve learned that Andrea Yu will be appearing on the cover of the November 16 issue of Oriental BQ Weekly Magazine. The red letters read: “Australia watches the 18th National Congress,” and on the second line, “Andi,” which is the Chinese rendering of Andrea. “Hodgkinson” is Yu’s real (given?) surname.
On Global CAMG Media Group’s official website, Hodgkinson is referred to as “Andi Yu,” as in, “CAMG’s Andi Yu interviewed China Policy’s David Kelly during the PRC’s 18th National Congress in Beijing.”
So what we have is Andrea Hodgkinson giving her name as Andrea Yu to foreign reporters but who is known in China as Andi. Got it?
And just so there’s no doubt who we’re dealing with, here’s Will Cannon’s tweet from the official @CAMG_Media account:
https://twitter.com/CAMG_Media/status/268238591862394881
The question needs to be asked: what is this woman doing? We’re working off very limited information here, but so far, it looks like she’s ruining the career advancement prospects for all foreign journalists who’ve ever worked for Chinese media. Posing for a magazine cover — however tasteful — probably won’t endear her to most serious female reporters, either.
There’s an adage in journalism that one never wants to be a target of journalism. Yu/Hodgkinson is squarely in the crosshairs. How she reacts will probably determine whether she’s able to save the last vestiges of her reporting credibility.
There is a bright side for her, though. Should she choose, she can easily switch to being a bona fide, glamorous, well-compensated flack. There’s no shame in that, as long as pretenses get dropped.
UPDATE, 4:22 pm: “Will Cannon” is no longer the name associated with the CAMG Media Twitter account, and the above tweet, not unexpectedly, has been deleted.
Not surprising, I’m sure plenty of Chinese companies and organizations hire pretty white people to essentially stand there. There are modeling agencies out there, and in their job description for foreign models is to stand around and look important to impress guest. It is to the extent when I see young white women in China working I find it hard to take them seriously.
As a young white woman (not working in China) I find your comments sexist and offensive. Please try and think outside the box, occasionally.
Since you are “not working in China,” please try and think inside the box, occasionally. For example, the popular book “Foreign Babes in Beijing” pretty much confirms the phenomenon that Sea_Horse_Mirror identifies.
Not working in China.
My comment is not about young white women. My comment is about Chinese society and their use of young white women as eye candy which as the article above states devalues all female reporters in China.
And that is also not racist towards Chinese, seeing as I am a young Chinese woman who has studied in China as a foreigner. Ask any young white professional woman in China about their lives being devalued by sexism and racist notions of the presence of white people supposedly improves you social standing. You can seriously get invited to a wedding in China just because you’re white, I know by experience.
Xinhua the national state controlled newspaper itself is a dishrag but is even worst when it comes to reporting about foreign celebrities. They have most beautiful celebrities in the world list, and they might as well be a list of pictures of scantily dressed white women we are totally devaluing as people.
She needs a few more accessories, like maybe a snake or a crocodile.
What’s up with the name change, anyway?
Possible reasons for a name change:
1. To lead a double life as a Chinese Australian
2. To make an awesome news story
3. She got married
Clearly one of the first two!
If I had to guess, I’d say that it was changed to make the name easier to grasp for Chinese folks since that seems to be, somewhat ironically, the target market of this “foreign journalist.”
Andi changed her surname because she has recently married a Chinese Australian man whose surname is Yu, so her actual name is Andrea Yu and her maiden name is Hodgkinson. Please get your facts right before making sensible comments. She is a nice lady and has done a fantastic job on her first mission to China as a first-time journalist. I believe she will do an even better job as a journalist next time.
“Please get your facts right before making sensible comments.”
Hey, I was only going by the name that appears on the above magazine cover. I had considered that she might have married a Chinese-named man, but CAMG and “Oriental BQ” are not helping clear things up, are they?
Par for the course, in other words.
Well, she might be a nice lady. But she did not do a fantastic job. She did a terrible job.
And even worse, she did an unethical job of posing as a state-controlled fake reporter, who took the opportunity away from real journalists who could have asked real questions in an important event.
What she did was dishonest. And no pretty face or name change will alter that.
Unfortunately your answer was incorrect and go back and try again…
The new face of “evil”?
My surname is “Henderson”. When in China, I list it as “He”, just because a lot of Chinese systems can’t handle non-standard surnames.
Having a Chinese name, that can be expressed with Chinese characters, and a western name (that is used outside of China) is absolutely standard practice.
In China, and in his Chinese writings, Kevin Rudd (Australia’s former Prime Minister) is “Lu Kewen”. If he can Sinofy his name, then I’m sure it’s not an illegitimate practice.
It doesn’t seem to be only Australia that gets its own CRI-influenced station. Check out “GBTimes” in Finland, which recently received a visit from the CRI President:
http://gbtimes.com/focus/news/cri-president-visits-gbtimes-finland