WASHINGTON– Radio Free Asia's (RFA) Mandarin Service, as well as its digital brand 歪脑 | WHYNOT were today named first-place winners at this year's Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards. RFA Mandarin's project In-depth Analysis of Trafficking of Women in China won in the category of Chinese Explanatory Reporting, while 歪脑 | WHYNOT's report Post-feminism, Capitalist Trap, or the United Cultural Front? We Discuss Little Red Book with Female Users in Taiwan won in the category of Chinese Arts & Culture Reporting.
“These awards highlight the fearless journalism of RFA Mandarin and 歪脑 | WHYNOT, who explore sensitive and complex issues such as the trafficking of women in China and rampant Chinese influence in the Taiwanese information space,” said RFA Executive Editor Min Mitchell. “Their winning projects not only speak to their outstanding work, but also RFA’s mission to inform audiences in China and Asia who would otherwise be left in the dark. They deserve all the credit for this achievement.”
RFA Mandarin's winning project - which also earned a Gracie award earlier this year - examines the ongoing human trafficking crisis in China. Its four-part investigation features comprehensive analysis and eye-opening interviews with a woman who was abducted and sold to a family in a rural province in China, and son who details the psychological trauma he developed growing up in an abducted family.
歪脑 | WHYNOT's winning report investigates Taiwanese netizens' usage of the Chinese social e-commerce app "Little Red Book" amid concerns over China's cultivation of a United Front against Taiwan. The report features interviews with three young Taiwanese female users, who detail their motivations for using the popular app and how they interpret the cultural imagination of a "Greater China."
In addition, 歪脑 | WHYNOT's projects Chinese Internet's Hidden Victims: Uncovering and Healing the Scars of Online Abuse and Revisiting the "Communist Aesthetics" Around Us: Uncovering the Everyday Brutality earned honorable mentions.
Founded in 1999 the SOPA awards recognize and reward great journalism in the Asia Pacific region. This year’s awards were announced at the SOPA Awards Gala Dinner in Hong Kong.