Zheng is honored for his piece Mother, son find peace of mind: Vietnamese a step closer to permanent stay in U.S., which appeared in the November 18, 2001 Metro/State section of the Houston Chronicle. The story is a follow-up on the piece he did a year before on the same refugee family, for which he won the award in 2001.

In that story, because of a series of U.S. government bureaucratic foul-ups, the mother and son were not able to be reunited with the refugee head of the family in Houston for years. They finally arrived, only to the news of his death four days earlier. The follow-up story tells of the reversal of the fate of the mother and son, who originally faced having to return to Vietnam.

Zheng has been employed at the Houston Chronicle for the last three years, first as a copy editor and then a reporter for ThisWeek section. He has covered the local government, education, business, culture, art, health, neighborhoods, and the ethnic and immigrant communities. An aggressive, detail-oriented and analytical reporter, Zheng covers issues and also writes features. With his reporting, especially on the Asian-American community, he has helped ThisWeek expand its readership.

A former dual-bachelor of arts degree English and journalism major, Zheng received his Master of Arts degree in Journalism and Communication from the University of Oregon in 1998. A journalist since 1987, Zheng currently is a board director of the Asian-American Press Club of Houston.

ˇ°There is still a long way to go before the Asian Pacific American community is adequately represented in the nation's media,ˇ± Zheng said. ˇ°I am encouraged by this award for the little work I've done, but I think it also recognizes the collective effort to bridge that gap by many more journalists who sometimes face enormous social and newsroom pressure to do so.ˇ±

Founded in 1973, OCA is a national non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization dedicated to securing the rights of Chinese-American and Asian-American citizens and permanent residents through legislative and policy initiatives at all levels of the government. It has 44 chapters across the nation and in Hong Kong.

Each year, OCA presents and recognizes the talents of Asian Pacific American journalists and writers and their best published pieces in newspapers and magazines with national circulation on social, political, economic or cultural issues facing Chinese-Americans and/or Asian-Americans.