Jennifer 8. Lee

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For the 1992 film, see Jennifer Eight.

Jennifer 8. Lee (born March 15, 1976 in New York City) is a New York Times reporter for the Metro section. She spells her middle name "8." (with both the digit and the period) on paper, but on her New York driver's license, it is spelled as "Eight".

Many Chinese and Japanese names contain numbers written in characters. Lee's parents, who are from Taiwan, added the number eight (the Chinese character 八) to Lee's name while she was a teenager (presumably with her consent). For many Chinese, the number eight symbolizes prosperity and good luck.

Lee graduated from Harvard College (class of 1999) and Hunter College High School. She interned at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Newsday and The New York Times while working on her applied mathematics and economics degree. She joined the Times in 2001, one and a half years after graduating from Harvard.

A February 3, 2004, New York Sun article portrayed Lee, then based in Washington, D.C., as someone known as much for her grand parties as for her byline and profession. Exactly one year later, an item in the Washington Post reported that Lee was being sued by her former Washington landlady, who claimed Lee's parties caused about $148,000 in damage to the landlady's condominium.

Lee is presently writing a book about Chinese food.