Yan Cong is an independent photographer based in Beijing, where she was born and raised. She focuses most of her long-term projects on women’s issues, rural China, and China’s relations with its neighbors. Her work has been published in ChinaFile, The Huffington Post, Caixin Weekly, NetEase, and Tencent, among others.

In 2015, Yan was selected to participate in the Angkor Photo Workshop and the New York Portfolio Review, sponsored by the New York Times Lens blog and the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. Cong received a student grant from Oslo University College for her long-term project on Cambodian women migrating to China for marriage. She was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass in 2016.

Cong is the co-founder of a Chinese-language photo blog, Yuanjin. She is also a contributing photographer to the @EyesOnChinaProject Instagram feed.

She holds a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia Journalism School.

Last Updated: November 12, 2020

Depth of Field

04.29.16

April’s Best Chinese Photojournalism

Yan Cong, Ye Ming & more from Yuanjin Photo
Over the past few weeks, the publications Sina, Tencent, Caixin, China Youth Daily, and the publishing duo Sixth Tone/The Paper published photo stories on the intimate, the industrial, the private, and the political. Journalists Yan Cong and Ye Ming...

Depth of Field

04.03.16

Meet ‘Depth of Field’: The Month’s Best Chinese Photojournalism

Yan Cong, Ye Ming & more from Yuanjin Photo
Welcome to ChinaFile’s inaugural “Depth of Field” column. In collaboration with Yuanjin Photo, an independent photo blog published by photographers Yan Cong and Ye Ming on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, we will highlight new and...

Infographics

07.03.14

Spoils of the ‘Tiger’ Hunt

David M. Barreda & Yan Cong
The Chinese Communist Party announced the expulsion from its ranks of Xu Caihou, who before his retirement in 2012 was one of the highest ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army. He also became the highest-ranking member of the Chinese...