Joseph Leung, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Sing Tao Daily’s West Coast edition, the largest Chinese-language newspaper in San Francisco, will retire this Friday after 36 years at the outlet.
“This has been a very important chapter of my life,” he said in Sing Tao Daily. “From newspapers and radio to new media, I have been fortunate to be part of it all and to have experienced the various stages of development in the Chinese-language media industry alongside Sing Tao.”
Sing Tao Daily, which began publishing in Hong Kong in 1938, and launched its first overseas edition in San Francisco in 1963, has become a local political force, as one of the few ways that elected officials can reach monolingual Chinese-speaking voters. Former mayors Ed Lee, Mark Farrell and London Breed were all regular columnists in the newspaper, expounding on city issues and their accomplishments.
Much of that rise in influence happened under Leung’s watch. Politicians would visit Sing Tao’s office regularly to introduce themselves to Leung, and talk to reporters and editors. In election years, Sing Tao’s endorsements are among the city’s most coveted.
Leung started as a reporter at Sing Tao in 1990, a few years after graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Over the next 36 years, Leung became the face of the broadsheet newspaper, which can be found in Chinatown grocery stores, mahjong parlors, mom-and-pop shops in the Westside, and Chinese homes and businesses across the Bay Area. Leung’s shows on Sing Tao Radio have become a go-to for monolingual-Chinese speakers to learn about local, national and international issues.
San Francisco has twice declared a date to be “Joseph Leung Day.” Former Mayor Willie Brown first did so in 2002 to congratulate Leung’s promotion as editor-in-chief, and the Board of Supervisors did so again last October to honor his news and community contributions (he got Oct. 8, 2025 the second time around).
An episode in which Leung bade farewell to the news agency has already amassed over 100,000 views since it was posted on YouTube on Tuesday.
Leung did not directly address the reason for his departure. Sing Tao News Corporation, the paper’s owner, described it as a retirement in a statement.
The anchor on the program posted to Youtube, however, described Leung’s stepping aside as “a temporary goodbye” in Cantonese.
On the program, Leung said that he plans to remain involved in serving the local Chinese community — although it is unclear how — and sees his next steps as a continuation of his journalism career.
Hundreds of viewers expressed sorrow in the video’s comment section.
“Leung is a highly competent, perceptive, politically astute, and principled editor-in-chief with a strong sense of justice and responsibility,” one commenter said. “I hope you’ll stay true to your original aspirations and continue to shine and make a difference in your new endeavors.”
Leung also led Sing Tao through the same decline that has hit every legacy paper in the country: declining advertising revenue, a shrinking subscription base, and the challenges of moving online. Many other Chinese-language outlets have disappeared, and for those that remain, workforces have shrunk and many cannot offer salaries competitive enough to attract top talent.
Leung expanded Sing Tao’s reach beyond print, and kept it as one of the last surviving newspapers serving the city’s Chinese community, even as its staff did shrink.
Leung described Chinese-language media in America as a bridge between the government, mainstream society, and an often isolated monolingual population.
Chinese outlets, he said, have a responsibility to “ensure that the community’s voice is heard, while also helping the community understand the outside world.”
