'Like milk': How one magazine became a mainstay of New Jersey's Chinese community

Ivy Lee is the founder and editor of the independent Chinese-language magazine Sino Monthly. She likens it to milk: "Milk has nutrition. It's very inexpensive and very easy to get." (Mary Yang/NPR)

EDISON, N.J. – Bundles of free newspapers are stacked by the doors of Chinese supermarkets in New Jersey. Plastered with brightly colored ads, most are backed by powerful institutions, be they religious groups, the spiritual movement Falun Gong or news agencies affiliated with the Chinese government in Beijing.

Sino Monthly, a magazine that costs $1.25 per issue, stands out among the Chinese-language press for something else: its independence. It was founded by a local couple in 1991. They're still at the helm.