Xinyan Yu Video Journalist Filmmaker Washington DC

SAMPLE REEL

INTERVIEWS

12:56

SCMP FILM: Fighting fentanyl

Overdoses linked to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, killed nearly 30,000 people in the United States in 2017. Authorities say most fentanyl sold in the state of Pennsylvania can be traced back to China. We went to Kensington, an area considered a “ground zero” of America’s opioid crisis, in the Pennsylvanian city of Philadelphia, to find out how a drug funneled through from China is fueling a health crisis half a world away.

05:34

Cannabis boom and bust on Native American land - BBC News

During the pandemic, hundreds of Chinese migrants who lost their jobs moved to a remote city on the Navajo Nation Indian reservation in New Mexico, to do what they thought was legal agricultural work. Instead, they and the local Native community found themselves pitted against one another in a bizarre cautionary tale about the boom in cannabis production in the US, and the impact on Asian migrant labourers. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog #BBCNews

03:19

Inside the lives of Asian massage workers: 'How can we not be scared?' - BBC News

The Atlanta spa shootings have placed a spotlight on a part of the massage industry in the US. Asian massage workers say they often have to deal with the assumption that Asian spas provide sex services. Two female Asian massage workers tell us about the stigma surrounding their profession and the sexual harassment they endure. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog #BBCNews

05:38

BBC News: Are America's unvaccinated changing their minds?

Warning: Video contains some upsetting scenes. Timothy changed his mind about Covid vaccines - but only after ending up in hospital with a tube to help him breathe. He lives in a county in Arkansas where only a third of people are double jabbed. Hospitals are filling up here once more. Doctors and nurses feel overwhelmed. Despite the surge in cases and deaths, many here remain hesitant - or outright opposed - to the vaccine. And public health experts warn that's a problem for everyone. #CutThroughtheNoise

02:31

US hate crimes: 'Asian women are not weak, timid or quiet' - BBC News

Asian American women speak about their experiences in the US as nationwide rallies against anti-Asian hate crimes are held. The demonstrations come after after a shooting rampage in Atlanta in which eight people were killed, six of them Asian women. Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog #BBCNews

05:12

INKSTONE: The poet who captures China’s war on coal

The world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide is waging a war on coal. No country produces or consumes more coal than China, but rampant air pollution and a surplus in coal has damaged its people’s health and economy. Here is how one poet lives through the ebbs and flows of China’s coal industry. Full story here: https://www.inkstonenews.com/china/impact-chinas-shift-away-coal-its-economy-environment-and-people/article/2163221

05:26

SCMP: US farmers hurting over flooding and trade war

Major US agriculture states including Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois are bracing for one of the wettest planting seasons in more than a hundred years. For Lake Benton, a small town of 683 people in southern Minnesota, the stress is compounded by a plunge in prices and an escalating US-China trade war that has grounded the soybean trade to a virtual halt. The double blow of flooding and tariffs has hit soybean farmers like Jon and Bob Worth, but they say they are willing to endure the short-term pain to support President Donald Trump.

03:38

INKSTONE: China is being choked by its deserts. This family is fighting back

A 75-year-old Chinese farmer has grown 1,300 acres of trees to protect his land from the sandstorms, but the enemy he faces is a scary one - desert covers 27% of China and it’s expanding fast. Text story here: https://www.inkstonenews.com/china/china-builds-great-green-wall-trees-fight-against-desertification/article/2163557

03:32

‘My landlord wants to evict me and I feel powerless'

Millions of Americans who are behind on their rent are now at risk of losing their homes. That's because the US Supreme Court has overturned a federal ban on evictions that was introduced to protect tenants during the pandemic. A government rescue package which was meant to get cash to struggling tenants - and in turn help landlords who say they have mortgages to pay - has only dispersed a fraction of the funds so far. We report from Baltimore where housing advocates warn that one in three tenants are at risk. The BBC contacted the landlord of the Copycat but received no response.

03:01

BBC News: The sinking island voting for Trump

Tangier Island is slowly disappearing due to erosion and rising water levels, but this US community of fishermen is putting its faith in a sea wall - and President Trump - to protect their homes, jobs and way of life. Some of the Chesapeake Bay residents warn that their neighbours are in denial about the threat of climate change. And scientists say who occupies the White House for the next four years could play a critical role in the global fight against dangerous climate change. Produced by Xinyan Yu, filming and editing by Roderick Macleod and Xinyan Yu

Xinyan is an award-winning video journalist and filmmaker based in Washington DC.

A native of Wuhan, China, Xinyan started her video journalism career in 2012 producing for BBC News in Beijing, covering the Asia Pacific region for six years. In 2018, she became a founding member of Inkstone, an innovative news app featuring daily digests of US-China news, and launched South China Morning Post‘s North America video team in New York as its senior video producer.

Xinyan returned to the BBC in 2020, and covered breaking news in the US as a senior video journalist for two years.

Now working as an independent filmmaker, Xinyan has directed and produced for international broadcasters including the BBC, NHK, PBS NOVA, Channel New Asia, etc. She is a New America National Fellow, a Firelight Media Doc Lab fellow, a Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist fellow and an alumnus of the Yaddo Residency.

Xinyan's passion for storytelling stems from her background growing up in a community of Chinese state-owned steel factory workers. Her work straddles two worlds - documenting the socioeconomic and geopolitical changes in the Global South where she is from and amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities in the developed world where she is living and working now.