Jennifer 8. Lee

Jennifer 8. Lee (Chinese name: Chinese: 李競^[1]; pinyin: Lǐ Jìng) (born March 15, 1976) is an American journalist who previously worked for The New York Times.^[2] She is also the co-founder and president of the literary studio Plympton,^[3] as well as a producer on The Search for General Tso, which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.^[4]

Lee popularized the term "man date", which subsequently inspired the film I Love You, Man starring Paul Rudd.^[5][6]

Early life and education

Lee was born on March 15, 1976 in New York City, to immigrants from Kinmen, an island off the coast of China's Fujian province.^[7][8] Lee was not given a middle name at birth so she chose "8." when she was a teenager.^[9][10][11] In Chinese culture, the number eight symbolizes prosperity and good luck. She graduated from Hunter College High School in Manhattan in 1994. She graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1999 with a degree in applied mathematics and economics.

Career

While a student at Harvard, Lee was the vice president of the Harvard Crimson. She interned at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Newsday, and The New York Times during college. She joined the Times in 2001, one and a half years after graduating from Harvard.

Lee wrote a book about the history of Chinese food in the United States and around the world, titled The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,^[8] documenting the process on her blog. She reported the story of how a batch of fortune cookies created 110 Powerball lottery winners.^[12] To the surprise of many non-Chinese readers, she reported that fortune cookies are found in many countries but not China and that fortune cookies may have originated in Japan.^[13][14] Warner Books editor Jonathan Karp struck a deal with Lee to write a book about "how Chinese food is more all-American than apple pie."^[15] She appeared on The Colbert Report to promote the book.^[16] The book was #26 on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[17]

In December 2009, Lee accepted a buyout, that is, when an employer may "buy out" an employee's contract by making a single prepayment, so as to have no ongoing obligation to employ the person, from The New York Times^[2] after the organization offered buyouts to all newsroom staff in October 2009 as part of an attempt to cut 100 newsroom positions due to budget cuts.^[18]

Lee has served on the advisory panel for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's "News Challenge", and has assisted the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, dealing with the press and with social networking sites.^[19] She helped the organization with its April 2010 release of a video showing the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike.^[20] Lee serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Public Integrity,^[21] the Advisory Board of the Nieman Foundation,^[22] and the Asian American Writers' Workshop.^[23] She is also an advisor to Upworthy.^[24]

In 2011, Lee and fellow writer Yael Goldstein Love founded a literary studio named Plympton, Inc.^[3] The studio focuses on publishing serialized fiction for digital platforms.^[25] Investors include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Y Combinator partner Garry Tan, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, Hipmunk founder Adam Goldstein, Inkling founder Matt MacInnis, Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu (author of “The Master Switch”), Quora co-founder Charlie Cheever, and Tony Hsieh’s Vegas Tech Fund.^[26] Its first series launched in September 2012 as part of the Kindle Serials program.^[27] Its app Rooster, launched in March 2014, is a mobile reading service for iOS7.^[28]

See also

• Chinese Americans in New York City

References

Further reading

• Jennifer 8. Lee Attracts Americans with Chinese Food, October 13, 2008. Source: Xinhua/Translated by womenofchina.cn

External links

• New York Times archive of Lee's articles
• Plympton website