Skip to Main Content
Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Bryan Liu

Bryan Liu, Managing Editor

Bryan Liu (they/them) is a student journalist from Jersey. Having been with the Beacon since day one, they’ve photographed and written extensive feature stories about local artists, pop culture, and communities. Ex-opinion and living arts editor. Formerly of GQ Middle East and Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. Freelance for Cambridge Day. Also a hairdresser.

Latest from Bryan Liu
Jeans d'Or

Jeans d’Or

By Bryan Liu, Managing Editor / April 16, 2025

Rhode Island-based Designer Henry Hawk wins the 2025 Jeans d’Or prize Awarded to designers or denimheads, the annual prize celebrates style, sustainability,...

Michael Kiwanuka. (Bryan Liu/ Living Arts Editor)

Michael Kiwanuka sings: a month before “Small Changes”

By Bryan Liu, Managing Editor / October 7, 2024
There was no disco, yet the ball kept spinning above us, and as much as I wanted this moment to freeze forever it would not—still, I could not help but overflow; because music this beautiful could not be clung to like water, only felt—and if not for my eyelid’s border or the skin of my eardrums, I would have melted all together. 
Illustration by Ryan Yau.

Everyone’s a Zen Master

By Bryan Liu, Managing Editor / October 4, 2023

It’s no secret that Buddhism regionalizes as it spreads. Before Buddhism became Zen, it was Chan—which combined original Indian Mahāyāna practice...

Illustration by Kellyn Taylor.

Activism isn’t skin-deep

By Bryan Liu, Managing Editor / September 13, 2023

I am sitting with the wettest elbows.  My forearms are slick with water from this morning when I was bent over the sink, washing my face. They will...

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

By Bryan Liu, Managing Editor / April 3, 2023

Radiohead’s 1995 alternative chart topper, “Fake Plastic Trees,” is about my Christmas tree. The eponymous fake Chinese rubber plant lives rent-free...