Mei Fong is an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of reporting in Asia, most recently as China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

Her stories on China’s transformative process in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics formed part of the package that won the Journal the 2007 Pulitzer Prize international reporting (Stories available for download here).

One of the stories in the Pulitzer package — about a group of construction workers involved in Beijing's round-the-clock pre-Olympic building boom — was also singled out for the Amnesty International Human Rights Press Award as well as awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia.

She was a finalist in the 2009 Deadline Awards, given by the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, for her coverage of the Sichuan earthquake. In the main story, “The Long Road Home,” she followed a group of migrant workers on a difficult three-day journey by rail, boat and foot across a distance equivalent to between California and Minnesota, documenting their quest to return home to damaged villages and devastated families.

 Her stories on China’s new economic struggle also formed part of a package that received an award of excellence in the 2009 Society of Publishers in Asia prizes.

A Malaysian, Ms. Fong started off her journalism career in Singapore as a crime reporter at tabloid The New Paper. During her tenure at the paper, she also wrote about regional issues such as the environmental devastation wrought by Indonesia's forest fires and the political turmoil in Muslim Malaysia resulting from the sacking of then-deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on charges of sodomy. A series she wrote on gambling and criminal underworld in Macau was awarded a Singapore Press Holdings award for excellence in journalism.

She joined The Wall Street Journal in 2001, writing about New York’s post 9-11 recovery. One of the pieces she wrote, highlighting the plight of Chinatown workers who lost their jobs after 9-11 but were left out of aid packages catering to far-wealthier New Yorkers, helped change aid policies.

In 2003 she moved to Hong Kong and became the city's correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, covering among other issues SARS, Hong Kong's democracy marches of 2003 and bird flu.

Ms. Fong received a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University and is a graduate of the National University of Singapore, with a joint degree in psychology and English literature with a scholarship from the Singapore Press Holdings Corp.

At Annenberg, she will be co-teaching International Journalism and Public Relations seminar [JOUR 599 Special Topics] in spring 2010. She is also the coordinator for Asia programs in the Office of the Dean.