Journalist · Photojournalist · Multimedia producer
李程超
Longform writing, documentary photography, field video, and bilingual reporting—grounded in specific people and lived experience.
New York–based · From Fuzhou, China
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I’m Chengchao Li, a New York–based journalist, photojournalist, and bilingual content creator, born and raised in Fuzhou, China.
I earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and International Relations from Boston University in 2025, and a master’s degree from Columbia Journalism School in May 2026. My reporting focuses on immigrant communities, labor, cultural identity, and civic life.
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Three reporting projects with complete text, direct links, and supporting visual sequences.
Select any photograph to view it uncropped.01
How a teaching artist makes culture an experience children can enter.
A longform profile and documentary photo essay following teaching artist Ling Tang through New York classrooms, community workshops, and public performances. The story examines how cultural transmission is built through repetition, care, and long-term relationships.
Read full story02
How an immigrant family’s restaurant became a neighborhood living room.
The Mata family has run Xochimilco in the South Bronx for nearly two decades. Moving from the dining room to the stockroom, market, and kitchen, this story follows the labor behind a place where food, music, and being remembered create a sense of home.
Read full story03
Four stories about the workers who keep a city moving.
A reporting series on transit-worker safety, fare policy, street conflict between buses and delivery workers, and the uncertainty facing unpaid TSA officers during a federal shutdown.
Read reporting series03
Portraiture, neighborhood observation, public events, and commissioned community coverage.
Select any photograph to view it uncropped.Three international students use rooms, objects, and routines to describe what home means while living in New York. The edit keeps each subject as a short sequence rather than reducing the project to one portrait.
15 photographsStreet commerce, labor, transit, and quiet pauses trace the daily rhythm of one of New York’s most diverse immigrant neighborhoods.
16 photographsA tightly edited sequence moving from ceremony and procession to officers, veterans, spectators, and participants—the people through whom public remembrance is made.
8 photographsAssignment photography for recurring social and web publishing, covering summer camp, senior programs, mentorship, and community gatherings. This section is intentionally separated from editorial work so a recruiter can distinguish client coverage from independent reporting.
10 photographs04
Field reporting shaped for the rhythm and demands of each platform.
On-the-ground interviews, mobile video, and platform-native editing focused on labor rights and immigrant advocacy.
Role — Independent reporter, interviewer, videographer, editor and publisher.
Watch Instagram Reel
A short documentary about Imad Khachan, the last independent international chess shop in New York, and the community it continues to hold.
Role — Independent reporter, interviewer, videographer, producer and editor.
Watch the short documentary05
Available for reporting, photography, multimedia assignments, and editorial collaborations in New York and beyond.
chengchao.li.work@gmail.com