Anthony Kuhn
Anthony Kuhn is NPR's correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the great diversity of Asia's countries and cultures. Before moving to Seoul in 2018, he traveled to the region to cover major stories including the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster.
Kuhn previously served two five-year stints in Beijing, China, for NPR, during which he covered major stories such as the Beijing Olympics, geopolitical jousting in the South China Sea, and the lives of Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities in China's borderlands.
He took a particular interest in China's rich traditional culture and its impact on the current day. He has recorded the sonic calling cards of itinerant merchants in Beijing's back alleys, and the descendants of court musicians of the Tang Dynasty. He has profiled petitioners and rights lawyers struggling for justice, and educational reformers striving to change the way Chinese think.
From 2010-2013, Kuhn was NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Among other stories, he explored Borneo and Sumatra, and witnessed the fight to preserve the biodiversity of the world's oldest forests. He also followed Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, as she rose from political prisoner to head of state.
Kuhn served as NPR's correspondent in London from 2004-2005, covering stories including the London subway bombings and the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Duchess of Cornwall.
Besides his major postings, Kuhn's journalistic horizons have been expanded by various short-term assignments. These produced stories including wartime black humor in Iraq, musical diplomacy by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, a kerfuffle over the plumbing in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Pakistani artists' struggle with religious extremism in Lahore, and the Syrian civil war's spillover into neighboring Lebanon.
Prior to joining NPR, Kuhn wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review and freelanced for various news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. He majored in French literature as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, and later did graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American studies in Nanjing.
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China's legislature has passed a controversial law giving police sweeping powers to monitor and control foreign nongovernmental organizations that operate in China. -
For the first time in more than a half-century, Myanmar is being governed by civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the foreign minister. But the military still has considerable clout. -
The letter that claimed to speak for "loyal party members" called for President Xi Jinping to step down. The incident is the latest chapter in a heated debate about the limits of free speech in China. -
On Thursday, the National League for Democracy party, nominated two candidates to contest for the post of president. Nobel laureate and longtime democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi was not nominated.
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China's Internet authorities have shut down all social media accounts of Ren Zhiqiang, a sharp-tongued real estate mogul compared by some in China to Donald Trump. -
Five people in Hong Kong's book industry have disappeared. All were linked to books forbidden in mainland China. Paul Tang says he has no plans to remove works critical of the Chinese leadership. -
A third of the 12,000-mile-long Great Wall of China lies in ruins. Its modern-day defenders confront what may be the world's greatest challenge in cultural preservation. -
China is scapegoating goats for a drop in the number of babies born last year — and hopes that the coming year of the monkey will be better. -
K-pop star Chou Tzu-yu was forced to apologize on TV after an unplanned political statement. The incident may have swayed presidential election voters in favor of Taiwan's winning opposition party. -
The conviction was based on the contents of seven tweets he posted online. The sentence caps a year which saw most of the country's small community of human rights lawyers detained or questioned.
