Karen Ma

Karen Ma worked for a decade as a reporter and writer for Tokyo-based The Daily Yomiuri, NHK Radio Japan, and Kyodo News. Raised in Hong Kong and Japan, she is is the author of Excess Baggage, a semi-autobiographical novel loosely based on her family’s experiences as Chinese immigrants in Tokyo during the post-bubble years of the 1990s. A graduate of Tokyo’s Sophia University, she also holds an M.A. in Chinese literature from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her articles have appeared in The Japan Times, The International Herald Tribune, NPR, South China Morning Post, and the New Delhi-based Mint, among others. Currently based in Beijing, she is a lecturer of Chinese culture and film at a local university.