Asking questions is more than a day job for Hu; she hopes her reporting will help change the face of public health in China, specifically in regard to HIV/AIDS. She recently had the opportunity to further her research with a 2005 IWMF Public Health Fellowship. Hu, the health desk editor at the Shanghai Star, an English-language weekly, and a public health reporter for China Daily, just finished a four-month stint at The Philadelphia Inquirer. She returned to China December 16 and will complete the remaining month and a half of her fellowship there with additional investigations of HIV/AIDS.
“It’s more than a disease,” she said. “It’s a challenge for the whole public health system.”
IWMF’s six-month fellowship program allows women newspaper editors and radio producers who cover public health issues in selected countries to receive on-the-job training at U.S. media outlets. The program is supported by Foundation Open Society Institute – Zug and administered by the Network Public Health Programs, Open Society Institute.
Hu, 28, acknowledged that there is much work to be done in researching HIV/AIDS and disseminating information about the disease. But she’s optimistic that HIV/AIDS can be controlled.
“Most of the time people are afraid because they don’t understand what it is,” she said.
While in the United States, Hu honed her reporting and writing skills by working for the health, science and medical reporting team at the Inquirer. She covered everything from an event to recruit African American organ donors to an obesity study among AIDS patients. Hu’s reporting taught her not only about health but also about the United States. For example, she had to learn about the medical insurance system when she wrote an article about uninsured children.
"This experience broadened my vision,” she said about the IWMF fellowship. Hu said she plans to share what she learned about journalism – especially the fairness, accuracy and ethics principles vital to good reporting – with her colleagues in Shanghai.
Before she returns to work full-time, however, Hu will spend a week in the Sichuan province of West China. While there, she plans to interview women in the sex industry – many of whom are also drug users – to learn about people living with HIV/AIDS and those who are at high risk of contracting it. Hu plans to examine the way communities can help support individuals with HIV/AIDS. She also hopes her research will be a catalyst for her to examine the role of women in contemporary Chinese society.
Story assignments at The Philadelphia Inquirer allowed Hu to act as an intermediary between cultures, a skill that will likely help her with her work in Sichuan. For instance, she wrote an article about the high rate of cervical cancer among Vietnamese women and quickly discovered that “behind the disease is the culture.” That is, she found that some Vietnamese women are not being tested because of the language barrier and because of their unwillingness to undergo examinations by male doctors for cultural reasons.
Jeff Gammage, Hu’s writing coach and mentor at the Inquirer, recognized her aptitude for handling a variety of different reporting situations.
“Sunny’s ability to navigate the languages and cultures of Philadelphia’s Asian communities has brought the newspaper important stories it otherwise would not have had,” he wrote in a letter at the end of Hu’s fellowship. “But Sunny has not confined herself to reporting on a single people or culture. Rather, in several instances, her work has been a bridge between East and West.”
“It’s important to open your heart to experience something and never be judgmental,” Hu said.
During her stay in the United States, Hu traveled to places such as the University of Maryland in Baltimore and Harvard University to talk to leading AIDS researchers and doctors. She also continues to read medical journals and reference books to learn about AIDS and other health issues.
Though she admitted she missed her family – especially her husband and her four-year-old son, Itian – while in the United States, Hu said she enjoyed the experience. When she wasn’t reporting or researching, she made time to visit museums, watch movies and even attend a ballet performance.
Other activities hardly distracted Hu from her passion to learn more about HIV/AIDS, though, especially with its impending effect on global health.
“It’s like a bomb,” she said. “You never know when it will explode in the future.”
But Hu’s hope is that journalism can help prevent it from detonating.