Pallavi Aiyar

Pallavi Aiyar is an Indian-born, award-winning foreign correspondent and the author of several books.

The book topics she has covered are as diverse as contemporary China, air pollution and parenting in a global context. She was also the lead author of a special Lonely Planet guide to China for the Indian market.

Over the past three decades, Pallavi has been based in New Delhi, Brussels, Beijing, Jakarta, Tokyo and Madrid and now lives once again in Beijing.

From those locations, she has reported on Europe, China, Japan, Indonesia and India for a number of Indian and international publications, including as a correspondent for The Hindu and The Business Standard.

She writes extensively on global culture, including feature articles in top international publications like The New York Times. She publishes a weekly newsletter on global culture at Pallavi’s substack

Her debut book, “Smoke and Mirrors”, examined the differential political and social systems in China and India. Her book “Orienting” analyzed the cultural and aesthetic values that underpin Japan and also compared those to India and China.

Her book on Europe, “Punjabi Parmesan: Dispatches from a Europe in Crisis”, explored how an Indian journalist made sense of the changing face of Europe. In its U.S. edition, the book was selected as “one of the best books on Europe in 2016” by Foreign Affairs magazine.

On China, Pallavi published a memoir in 2008, titled “Smoke and Mirrors.” And her 2011 novel, “Chinese Whiskers: The Adventures of Soyabean and Tofu”, published in the United States as well as in Italy, Belgium and India, presented a modern fable set in Beijing.

Her other books include “Babies and Bylines: Parenting on the Move” and “Choked”, which provided an in-depth look at the air pollution-crisis in New Delhi and Beijing.

Pallavi has presented her works at literary festivals, universities, think tanks and foundations around the world, including at the Berlin, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Ubud literary festivals.

Pallavi has an MSc from the London School of Economics in Global Media and Communications. In addition, she received a first-class M.A. (Oxon) in Modern History from Oxford University and a B.A. in Philosophy from Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s College. She also was a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University in 2007.