When you ask Emma-Li Thompson to introduce herself in Mandarin, she uses a different name. Lǐdōngyīng 李冬英 was what they named her at an orphanage in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, a town situated in Northeastern China. Li was the last name of the orphanage’s director.
To her, it doesn’t feel right to use the name Emma-Li in a Mandarin sentence. That’s the name her white adoptive parents gave her when they brought her home to Scottsdale, Arizona in 1997.

Trenae Nuri

Trenae Nuri

Trenae V. Nuri is a multimedia journalist. Since 2010, Trenae has written articles and produced news packages on the lives of underrepresented communities and issues. Her maturation as a journalist and advocate for community journalism has been cultivated through her work at several media outlets in the Philadelphia region. She is a certified investigative reporter, certified producer at Philadelphia Public Access Media, and first place recipient of the 2013 Youth Writer Section Merit Award from the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Currently, she’s a producer/reporter and pursuing a master’s degree with a concentration in journalism and public communication at Drexel University.