Caitlin made her crossover from print journalism to broadcast media so that she could make the best use of her two greatest strengths: talking and writing. Previously, Caitlin worked as a reporter for Sports Illustrated China, interviewing the likes of Usain Bolt (the fastest man in the world ran three hours late for their interview), Liu Xiang (who hurdles gates to avoid reporters) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (who was incredibly gracious when Caitlin went to the wrong embassy building and had to sprint into their interview, sweaty and late). Prior to SI China, Caitlin worked as P.J. O'Rourke's his left hand (libertarian O'Rourke needed an assistant to balance out his right-leaning tendencies).

Caitlin graduated from Amherst College summa cum laude with a degree in Ethnography of Race, a major she created in a roguish act of academic vigilantism. She studied abroad in Beijing in 2005, and "conducted thesis research" at the National Library in Beijing in 2006, which consisted of wandering around the Chinese stacks in confusion until she happened upon the perfect resource -- written by a professor at the university down the road from hers in the US.

A New Hampshire native, Caitlin writes a bi-weekly column for The Keene Sentinel about her life in China. The fact that she's written it for two years now shows just how much she has to say.

Brevity is not her strength.

David Moser has worked in academia and media in Beijing for almost twenty years. Formerly a program advisor and host on CCTV-10, he is currently Academic Director for CET Beijing Studies, an overseas study program for American college students located at Beijing Capital Normal University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and is an active pianist in the Beijing jazz scene.

Born in Cameroon, Francis Tchiegue speaks French and English fluently. Now he can also speak excellent Chinese and a little Korean. He loves China so much that he has been living in China and learning Chinese for several years. He is a performer of great renown in China. He excels at traditional Chinese performing skills, such as cross talk and face changing. He has a Ph.D in Math from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Lijia Zhang is a factory-worker-turned writer and journalist. Her articles have appeared in many international publications, including South China Morning Post, Japan Times, The Observer, Newsweek, Asian Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Socialism Is Great about her experience at a rocket factory was first published in US in 2008 and has been translated into many languages. She is a regular speaker on the BBC, Channel 4 and National Pubic Radio in America.

Nick first came to China for an exchange during his third year at the University of British Columbia, where he majored in Asian Language and Culture.

He studied for one year at the Beijing Language and Culture University before returning to Canada, and upon graduation in 2008 he returned once again to China, this time to the city of Changchun, for a Masters program in Chinese Linguistics.

Under the tutelage of famous crosstalk (or "xiangsheng") teacher Ding Guangquan, he has studied the form of comic dialogue, and he has also studied forms such as bamboo clackers ("kuaiban"), martial arts, lion dancing, and so on.

In 2009 he received 3rd place in the CCTV National Chinese Competition for Foreigners Studying in China. Nick has performed on Chinese TV shows such as "Tong Yi Shou Ge" and "Qu Yuan Za Tan", for which he often writes his own material. In the future he plans to focus more on writing and directing, and has ambitions to be a film director.

Rebecca Parr is a graduated actor from Bath Spa University in England in 2007 and she holds a BA Hons in Acting for Stage, Camera and Radio. She also studied a National Certificate in Radio Broadcasting for 2 years in Dublin, Ireland, graduating in 2003. Having lived in Beijing for two years she has been an active member of the “Beijing Actors Workshop” and is now a freelance actor finding whatever challenging jobs she can, on stage, on screen and on microphone! She is a regular voice artist, performing character voices and national and international accents.  Living life as an expat in Beijing has been an exciting and enlightening experience, however she is still yet to conquer the hurdle of learning good Mandarin!

Roseann Lake is happiest when not sleeping in her own bed, which despite its promiscuous implications, is just meant to illustrate her wanderlust. As an undergrad, she triple majored in Spanish, French and English Literatures, mainly as an excuse to bop around Europe and South America. She now speaks fluent Spanish and French, decent Italian, and enough Mandarin to keep her from ruffling too many feathers in Beijing.

Recently graduated from NYU with a Masters degree in Journalism, she finds Beijing to be a constant source of fresh material, and is having a razzling good time cruising around town on her hot orange electric scooter, Fanta.
 
Wherever she goes, (and this hen loves to flee the coop!) Roseann believes in the importance of laughing at frustrations, trusting in the common good of humankind, and having a healthy appetite for the unordinary, even when it can’t be digested without Pepto Bismol.

Roseann is also the Property editor for Time Out Beijing, and contributes semi-regularly to Best Food in China, The Huffington Post, and France24.

Sandra Teh's mantra for living: Life is short. Live it to the fullest. Never saying no to an adventure, she's traveled to 77 cities in 23 countries, 33 out of 50 US states and tried everything from skydiving all the way down to scuba diving and almost everything in between. Originally born in Malaysia, Sandra is fluent in English, Mandarin and Malay, Fujian and Cantonese which comes in highly useful when 'blending into China and interacting with locals and foreigners alike to expound a wide range of opinions and ideas'. A graduate from Western Michigan University in Broadcast Production & Business Management, she comes to us with a background in editing, independent producing, documentary making and spent the last 6 years working on the Emmy award winning Oprah Winfrey Show based in Chicago.