Matthew Chitwood, Author at Institute of Current World Affairs

Matthew Chitwood is the China and the Global Voice director at Edelman, a global communications firm. He spent his ICWA fellowship (2017–2019) in Bangdong, a remote village with a population of 350 in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province, reporting on how massive infrastructure development and anti-poverty measures were transforming rural life, economy and governance. Matt previously worked in Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan’s capital Kunming and Taipei as a foreign policy and communications professional. He holds a dual master’s degree in China studies and international economics from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

ICWA Dispatches by Matthew Chitwood

For rural Chinese, economic reform is worth the 40-year wait
With benefits finally trickling down, support for President Xi is running high.
Housework and homecoming
Part II: Practicing hospitality in rural China.
Housework and homecoming
Part 1: Renovating a mud house in rural China.
Trash management in rural China
The good, the bad and the cha bu duo.
In China, country people in a land of drastic change
Rural Chinese are adapting to transformation unlike anything seen before. These are some of their stories.

Publications by Matthew Chitwood

Johns Hopkins SAIS Magazine: Matt Chitwood profile
Johns Hopkins SAIS Magazine features Matt Chitwood (China, 2017-2019) as a noteworthy alum, who is chronicling the transformation of China from his home in a remote village in Yunnan province. “Changes have been taking place in Bangdong village, where I live," Matt writes. "Spring tea season has come and gone. Some have married, and some have passed... and my neighbors ate their dog.”