【4/25/2021】CAPA-NoVA Distinguished Chinese American Project
（Written by: Jing Bai））
宗毓华（Connie Chung）, has been a trailblazer in broadcast news as an anchor and reporter for U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBS. She was the first Asian and the second woman to anchor the American’ major networks. Throughout her career, she has won three Emmys and a Peabody among several other accolades for her reporting and exclusive interviews.
Chung was born in 1946 in Washington DC, as one of five surviving daughters of a Chinese diplomat family. She received her journalism degree from the University of Maryland in 1969. Her first job was a copy person at WTTG in Washington then a newsroom secretary. She ultimately worked her way up and advanced to news writer and on-air reporter.
Regarding her career decision, she said “For a small, diminutive-sized Chinese person who grew up in a very loud family and never spoke up in my life, it was dramatic” says Chung, but she was determined to give her name “Chung” significance.
Reflecting on plowing through the tough industry with rare representation of women, or women of color, she said that “I was young and experienced – and inexperienced. I was a woman and I was Chinese. So I never knew when people were giving me a hard time which reason it was, except when they would say, oh, this is yellow journalism or you slant the news. I fought with a sense of humor. I wouldn’t let them get my goat by taking it seriously even if they meant it seriously.”
For more about Connie Chung,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Chung
【Not only do we live among the stars, the stars live within us! 】
