{{short description|American journalist}} {{Infobox person | name = Hannah Beech | image = Hannah Beech - World Economic Forum on East Asia 2012.jpg | alt = Photograph of Hannah Beach at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in 2012 | caption = Hannah Beech at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in 2012 | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = <!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per WP:DOB. For people who have died, use {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}}. --> | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) --> | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Journalist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | parents = Keyes Beech (father) }}
'''Hannah Beech''' is an American journalist. Since August 2017, she has been the Southeast Asia Bureau chief for ''The New York Times'' based in Bangkok.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120721095420/http://search.time.com/results.html?venue=timeasia&summaries=yes&sort_order=SCORE+desc+DATE+desc&search_type=simple&query=hannah+beech Hannah Beech articles]</ref> She formerly worked for ''Time'' magazine; Beech specializes in Asia, and was sometimes credited as ''Time''{{'s}} Southeast Asia bureau chief.<ref name="chief1">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815792,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620125649/http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815792,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 20, 2008 |title=Serious Fun |first=Michael |last=Elliot |magazine=Time |date=June 19, 2008 |access-date=February 16, 2010 |quote=Hannah Beech, our Southeast Asia bureau chief, spent part of her childhood in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.}}</ref> The daughter of Keyes Beech, a prominent wartime photographer who covered World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, Beech graduated in 1995 from Colby College.<ref name=":0" /> She did undergraduate internships at ''U.S. News & World Report'' and Asian media outlets.<ref name="colby">[http://www.colby.edu/admissions_cs/shaping_the_future/graduates.cfm What can you do with a Colby degree?], Colby College, Retrieved February 16, 2010</ref> She was the 1994 recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship for Maryland.<ref>[http://truman.gov/meet-our-scholars/meet-our-scholars-detail?ScholarUserId=5787195a-6641-460f-905b-e20403343259 Hannah K. Beech]{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''Meet Our Scholars'', The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, Retrieved February 16, 2010</ref>
In 2009, Beech was awarded for Excellence in Reporting Breaking News, Honourable Mention, in the Society of Publishers in Asia Awards for Editorial Excellence (SOPA Awards), for her reporting on Cyclone Nargis in Burma.<ref>[http://www.sopasia.com/awards/2009/groupa.asp 2009 Award Winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611065931/http://www.sopasia.com/awards/2009/groupa.asp |date=2010-06-11 }}, SOPA Awards, Retrieved February 16, 2010</ref> She also received a 2007 Honourable Mention for Best Opinion Writing.<ref>[http://www.sopasia.com/awards/2007-winners-a.asp 2007 Award Winners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090620004733/http://www.sopasia.com/awards/2007-winners-a.asp |date=2009-06-20 }}, SOPA Awards, Retrieved February 16, 2010</ref> Beech and eleven other journalists from ''The New York Times'' shared the 2020 Gerald Loeb Award for Breaking News for their article, "Crash in Ethiopia".<ref name=LOEB-2020>{{Cite press release |title=Anderson School of Management announces 2020 Loeb Award winners in business journalism |url=https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-anderson-school-of-management-2020-loeb-award-winners |date=November 13, 2020 |access-date=November 13, 2020 |publisher=UCLA Anderson School of Management |last1=Trounson |first1=Rebecca}}</ref>
== Responses == Beech's June 2020 article, "Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward", attracted widespread criticism in social media platforms and news outlets across Southeast Asia. In the article, Beech describes mangosteens as "an exercise in disappointment", states that durian stank of "death", and concludes that many of the region's native fruits hovered "between delectable and decayed". Written approximately half a year into the COVID-19 global pandemic, Beech also likened the shape of rambutan to coronavirus: "With its crimson skin studded with green feelers, the egg-sized fruit bears more than a passing resemblance to a coronavirus."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/world/asia/bangkok-thailand-fruit-durian.html "Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Reward"], ''The New York Times'', Retrieved June 22, 2020.</ref>
While the article attracted criticism in traditional and social media platforms across Southeast Asia for its reliance on racist tropes to portray the region's food cuisine, it is also notable for having generated debates amongst journalists about the need for greater diversity in the news industry.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Durian Fiasco: How a Story About Asian Fruits Sparked a Debate on Orientalism|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/durian-asian-fruits-orientalism-debate/|access-date=2021-04-04|website=Vice.com|date=29 June 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2020-08-05|title=An article about durian caused a huge backlash — but it's part of a bigger problem in food writing|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-06/food-culture-media-diversity-australia-durian/12522524|access-date=2021-04-04|newspaper=ABC News|language=en-AU}}</ref>
Beech's February 2021 article, "No One Knows What Thailand Is Doing Right", was criticized as racist towards Asian people by several writers and professors. In the article, Beech speculates that Thailand's relatively low number of COVID-19 cases can be explained by the Thai people's genetic immunity to the virus rather than first acknowledging the government's pandemic response.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Beech|first1=Hannah|last2=Dean|first2=Adam|date=2020-07-16|title=No One Knows What Thailand Is Doing Right, but So Far, It's Working|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/world/asia/coronavirus-thailand-photos.html|access-date=2021-11-06|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Sri Lankan writer Indi Samarajiva argues that such coverage "attributes agency to rich/white nations like Germany or New Zealand but luck to anyone poorer or dark. And it's just not true. Poorer nations have done better than the rich because they had robust public health responses. Because they worked together. Because they reacted early. These are all lessons worth learning, but the west is unable to learn them because they're simply too racist to see."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Samarajiva|first=Indi|date=2020-09-27|title=The Overwhelming Racism Of COVID Coverage|url=https://indica.medium.com/the-overwhelming-racism-of-covid-coverage-78e37e4ce6e8|access-date=2021-11-06|website=Medium|language=en}}</ref> In an article published by the Social Science Research Council, Professor Jonathan Corpus Ong of the University of Massachusetts Amherst also condemns Beech's article for "perpetuating Orientalist frames".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Corpus Ong|first=Jonathan|date=2021-02-04|title=The Contagion of Stigmatization: Racism and Discrimination in the "Infodemic" Moment, V1.0|url=https://mediawell.ssrc.org/literature-reviews/the-contagion-of-stigmatization-racism-and-discrimination-in-the-infodemic-moment/versions/1-0/|access-date=2021-11-06|website=MediaWell, Social Science Research Council|language=English|archive-date=2021-11-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106092939/https://mediawell.ssrc.org/literature-reviews/the-contagion-of-stigmatization-racism-and-discrimination-in-the-infodemic-moment/versions/1-0/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Beech sparked controversy again by characterizing China-dominated sports such as shooting, weightlifting, table tennis, diving, and badminton as "less prominent sports" that are "perfected with rote routines", in contrast to more "prominent" sports won by Americans that "involve an unpredictable interplay of multiple athletes".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Beech |first1=Hannah |title=The Chinese Sports Machine's Single Goal: The Most Golds, at Any Cost |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/world/asia/china-olympics.html |access-date=29 July 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=29 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Haiphong|first=Danny|date=2021-08-24|title=Western Media Disses China's Olympic Atheletes [sic]|url=https://www.laprogressive.com/racism-against-china/|access-date=2021-11-06|website=LA Progressive|language=en-US}}</ref> She also portrayed Chinese athletes as factory-like products created by "China's sports assembly line" and concludes that the weightlifter Liao Qiuyun has been traumatized by the system. Science writer Ke Nan accused Beech's article of racism and dehumanization, adding that the majority of US gold medals also come from three non-team based sports: swimming, athletics, and gymnastics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202108/03/WS61090f35a310efa1bd66661f.html|title=NYT uses dirty tricks to tarnish China's Olympic gold}}</ref> Ke also criticized Beech for omitting any reference to the history of sexual violence against women athletes in the US in her comparison between Simone Biles and Liao Quiyun.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Nan|first=Ke|title=Sports should not be politicized, at any cost - Chinadaily.com.cn|url=http://epaper.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202108/10/WS6111acada3106abb319fc9b0.html|access-date=2021-11-06|website=epaper.chinadaily.com.cn}}</ref>
==Personal life== Beech is the daughter of Keyes Beech, a foreign correspondent who covered the Fall of Saigon.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Beech |first=Hannah |date=2025-05-01 |title=50 Years After the U.S. Left Vietnam, Another Retreat Is Shaking Asia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/world/asia/vietnam-america-asia-retreat.html |access-date=2025-05-01 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Beech is married to journalist and author and freelance reporter Brook Larmer, and they have two sons.
==Bibliography== {{Expand list|date=May 2016}}
===Articles=== *{{cite magazine |author=Beech, Hannah |others=With reporting by Truong Uyen Ly |date=April 20, 2015 |title=Vietnam looks forward |department=World |magazine=Time |edition=South Pacific |volume=185 |issue=14 |pages=28–35}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{GeraldLoebAward Breaking News}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Beech, Hannah}} Category:Time (magazine) people Category:Living people Category:Colby College alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Gerald Loeb Award winners for Breaking News Category:21st-century American women journalists Category:21st-century American journalists Category:The New York Times people