Vee Hua 華婷婷 is a writer, filmmaker, artist, and journalist who stepped into the role as the International Examiner’s interim Editor in Chief in June 2025, taking over for former editor Alexa Strabuk as the organization sought a permanent replacement.
As the former executive director of the Northwest Film Forum, current editor of REDEFINE magazine and former interim managing editor at the South Seattle Emerald, Hua brought to the Examiner a unique mix of nonprofit leadership, creativity, and journalism, helping to lead the team through much reorganization and setting up the organization for great success in 2026.
Incoming editor in Chief Travis Quezon spoke with Hua in their last month in the editor’s chair.
Travis Quezon: What has your experience been like as interim Editor in Chief of the International Examiner in the last six months?
Vee Hua: My last six months at the International Examiner have been pretty illuminating, I think, because during my whole time in Seattle, I actually haven’t honestly spent that much time in the Chinatown International District. Most of my nonprofit work has been about supporting BIPOC communities at large, rather than specifically focusing on Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. So it’s been, for me, a lot of understanding of new players, organizations, and individuals who are making change at a level different from what I had known before, which is cool.
TQ: I know the term BIPOC itself is a very large umbrella term, and ANHPI is also a large umbrella. Is there any insight you can give into either trying to cover a large, diverse group, or in narrowing it down and covering specific people?
VH: I think, similar to you, I’m always interested in covering the undercovered people. And I think it’s an interesting conversation, because it’s like, if you’re just focusing on the Chinatown International District, that obviously creates coverage for certain communities more than others. And then, if you want to cover that whole umbrella, you do have to look outside of the CID—so I think being mindful of that balance and also educating myself [is important].
This month, we have a cover article about Pacific Islander communities and PICA Washington. I think it was at one of our tabling events with the City of Seattle that a guy from West Papua came up to us and was like, “Oh, I’m Pacific Islander, and I [wasn’t aware of that country]. … So I think educating myself and others has been part of the vision or the intention in coverage.
TQ: That’s the cool part; you’ve got to be humble. No one knows everything about every culture. We all have learning to do.
VH: And I think it’s also learning from the IE staff and board from before that. The IE historically has, and naturally it makes sense, covered more Chinese, Japanese, Korean communities and the East Asian communities are more represented on the board as well—and continue to be that way—but the org as a whole has, through time, intentionally tried to broaden that.
TQ: Why should people support the Examiner?
VH: Because it’s one of the oldest Asian American publications in the country. And I think it’s really cool that it has roots that are so deeply tied to activism and to this neighborhood. I think it offers a perspective that probably a lot of Asian publications do not necessarily offer. And that it’s intergenerational is really cool.
TQ: You are also a filmmaker and storyteller. Can you speak to the nuances between bringing a story from your personal vision to life on film, compared with telling stories through journalism?
VH: Well, I mean, there’s different kinds of filmmaking. Obviously, I think documentary filmmaking is a little more like journalism, where you’re featuring a subject or a topic, and the story revolves around them. What I’m working on right now, and mostly work on, is narrative filmmaking, which is with scripts and with actors. I think [narrative filmmaking] definitely [uses] the parts of the creative brain versus the more analytical news writing brain…
For me, narrative filmmaking is definitely more of like a tortured creative pursuit where you have to be in the right mood and headspace—whereas for me personally, writing journalism and interviewing people and stuff like that comes more naturally. It’s easier.
What I’m working on right now is fundraising for, and hopefully shooting, my first narrative feature film, Reckless Spirits, in February 2026.
TQ: Have there been any stories that you’ve worked on as a writer or editor in the past year or six months that were particularly meaningful to you?
VH: I think some of the cover stories that we’ve done in the past six months were resonant. There was a big one by Adrian Ellis Alarilla about social safety nets being impacted after the Big, Beautiful Bill happened, where he talked to a lot of service providers in this area. And then our managing editor Chatanya Robinson did one in November about Native organizations and their present and future plans in the Little Saigon area. I think it is important for this paper to have those stand out.
TQ: What issue affecting in ANHPI communities do you find most critical going into 2026?
VH: I think that a paper like the IE plays an important role in order to be able to present the diversity of opinions within ANHPIA communities—and even just in the Chinatown International District community—and hopefully be able to present it in a way that’s relatively neutral. [With,] for instance, Sound Transit being a big one, FIFA being a potentially big one, public safety in the CID and the 12th and Jackson area being a big one: those are conversations that I feel like a lot of other outlets might be afraid to have conversations about because either they feel like they’re not part of the community and they can’t really cover it, or it’s too controversial to cover. And I feel like being a publication that’s rooted here that also has ties with so many diverse parts of the ANHPIA community … it’s important to talk about these things that maybe are difficult to talk about, or other people don’t want to talk about.
TQ: What are you going to miss most about leaving your role as editor in chief of the International Examiner?
VH: I do like working in this neighborhood. I think it’s really fun. I think picking covers every issue is super fun and scratches that good part of my brain. I think every issue is just very educational for me and also being able to learn from elders that I maybe have not known before. Shout out to Ron Chew who [has helped me learn more].
TQ: Can you please tell our readers where you’re headed off to in the coming weeks, and why?
VH: I will be going to Mexico towards the end of the year and hopefully shooting my feature film Reckless Spirits down there in February and March. It’ll be like a collaboration of U.S. people and a local Mexican film crew that I’ve developed relationships with over the past year. Our film is a “metaphysical, multilingual POC best friend comedy for a bleak era,” and we’re searching for funds right now to be able to help make that a reality.
Vee Hua’s last day as the International Examiner’s editor in chief is December 5. Support their upcoming feature film project, Reckless Spirits, by visiting vivianhua.com/film/reckless-spirits or follow their work at linktr.ee/hellomynameisvee.
Travis Quezon (Editor in Chief) is descended from Filipino settlers in Hawaiʻi. He worked as a journalist and newspaper editor in Honolulu since 2002 before moving to Seattle in 2012. In Seattle, Travis was the editor in chief of the International Examiner (2013 to 2017) and executive director of the Seattle Globalist. Travis was most recently working in marketing and communications for community health organizations. Travis rejoined the International Examiner as editor in Chief in 2025. Contact Travis at: [email protected]
