About | 关于我

Dake Kang in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

I’m an investigative reporter and video journalist with The Associated Press, most recently based in the AP’s Beijing bureau. I am currently on sabbatical and will return to work in 2027.

I arrived in Beijing in January 2018 as a videojournalist, at a time when China was undergoing dramatic political and cultural change. Over nearly a decade in China, I’ve reported extensively on issues like technology, human trafficking, COVID-19, and Beijing’s campaign of forced assimilation against the Uyghurs. I was at Hong Kong’s Legislative Council during the torrid 2019 demonstrations, in Wuhan at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and in Shanghai during the White Paper protests. Over half a dozen trips to Xinjiang, I investigated mass detentions, cultural erasure, restrictions on religion and coercive labor practices. With colleagues, I exposed the deep complicity of American tech companies in building the Chinese surveillance state, and their role in exporting such technologies across the world.

With colleagues, I’ve also done features over the years about how life has changed in China over the years, including stories on the country’s budding underground electronic music scene, how young Chinese are taking advantage of extraordinarily cheap housing to retire early, and an elderly artist who hopes his realist depictions of life under COVID controls can pay tribute to the heroism on display in that era.

In my work, I strive to do hard-hitting, revealing, unflinching journalism, while also giving readers a nuanced idea of the complexities at play. I believe in doing truthful and objective journalism while keeping in mind that the truth is multifaceted.

I am keen on connecting with potential sources and others interested in reaching out. If you’d like to get in touch, please see my contact page.

I went to the University of Chicago, where I majored in history and math and wrote an award-winning thesis on the construction of Beijing’s first subway. I’m technically a Korean American from New Jersey, but I’m really half Asian-American, half a Third Culture Kid: I grew up in Seoul and Shanghai as well as the U.S. I speak English natively, Chinese fluently, and am studying Korean diligently.

You can read more about me here:

If you understand Chinese, I speak more about my life and work here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olJKWOuXMlY

我是美联社调查与视频记者姜大翼，最近常驻美联社北京分社。目前我正在停薪留职，预计于2027年重返工作岗位。

2018年1月，我以视频记者的身份来到北京。当时，中国正经历着剧烈的政治与文化变迁。在中国近十年的时间里，我广泛报道了科技、人口贩卖、新冠疫情，以及中国针对维吾尔人的强制同化行动等议题。

我曾参与过许多一线报道。2019年激烈的示威活动期间，我在香港亲眼目睹了示威者闯入立法会大楼；新冠疫情初期，我去了武汉；“白纸运动”期间，我在上海被抓捕了。我曾六次以上前往新疆，调查大规模抓捕行动、文化强制同化、宗教限制以及强制劳动等问题。我还与同事一道，揭露了美国科技企业在协助建设中国监控国家方面所扮演的深度共谋角色，以及这些企业在向世界各地出口相关技术过程中所发挥的作用。

多年来，我也与同事共同制作了许多特写报道，记录中国人的生活如何发生变化。其中包括关于中国方兴未艾的地下电子音乐场景、年轻人如何利用异常低廉的住房成本提前退休，以及一位老年艺术家如何希望通过描绘疫情管控下的现实生活，向那个时代所展现出的英雄主义致敬。

在工作中，我努力进行有力度、揭示真相且毫不回避的新闻报道，同时也希望让读者以更细腻、更全面的方式理解其中的复杂性。我相信新闻报道应当真实、客观，同时也要牢记：真相往往具有多面性。

我很愿意与潜在消息源，以及其他有意与我联系的人建立联系。如果您希望与我取得联系，请参阅我的联系页面。

我在芝加哥大学学了历史和数学的双重专业，并撰写了一篇关于北京第一条地铁建设的论文。我是一名来自新泽西州的韩裔美国人；但更准确地说，我一半是亚裔美国人，一半是“第三文化小孩”：我曾在首尔、上海以及美国长大。我以英语为母语，中文流利，目前正在认真学习韩语。

您可以在这里进一步了解我：

也可以在这里进一步了解我的生活和工作：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olJKWOuXMlY