I had lunch with a guy I haven't seen in some time - Steve, who works at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Great food, by the way - the restaurant of the Sichuan provincial government's rep office in Beijing, so naturally the Sichuan food was amazing. Ordered the standards just to make sure. But I digress. Steve mentioned an article I somehow missed ( Read more... )

Work and more work. Can't say it's not rewarding though: I'm right proud of some of the pieces I've done for this big forthcoming cover package and I look forward to reaction from RH readers. Wrote on semiconductors for the first time, really. An interesting little factlet: China exports about 90% of the chips it produces, and at the same time ( Read more... )

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, here's the "Instant China Journalism Template" that I wrote for December's column in that's Beijing. This is in its original form, pre-editing.

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As promised, some of the recent that's Beijing "Ich Bin Ein Beijinger" columns, starting with last month's about the legendary Dess Maitou band Grave Robbers Guild.

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Shit, I really need to update more frequently. I figure with the new that's Beijing website unable so far to display magazine content it might be nice to throw some recent columns on LJ for people who haven't picked up a hard copy yet. I'll do that. But first, the banal details of my life you're surely all dying to hear!

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Oh, if only I could tell y'all how much fun it's been here in Davos! Communicate with me privately for all the dirt; I'll go home and sort through my (copious) notes and at some point try to figure out what I can post without jeopardizing my chances of ever being invited back. Actually, for the most part I'd have only good things to say. Best thing ( Read more... )

Hey, so guess who the new Associate Editor, Asia, for the re-launched Red Herring magazine is? Yep, I've decided after lengthy deliberation to hang up freelancing and take a real job at a real magazine. It is, I suppose, what I've been after all along. This came up serendipitously: I didn't formally apply, they haven't even seen a resume, and as ( Read more... )

Dinner conversations in my family revolve invariably around politics (when we're not talking about the personal lives of those sibs regrettably not present, and yes, there was plenty of that over turkey last night too). After we were through with the post mortem on poor John Kerry, my younger brother Jay took me to task for the "rooting for China" ( Read more... )

We're leaving for the States on Tuesday and I've managed to pack quite a bit into the last week before our departure. Finally about finished with all the work I have to do: only one little interview to write up - a good one I had this afternoon with Shao Yibo, founder and chairman of Chinese auction site EachNet (now eBay EachNet post-acquisition ( Read more... )

I'll be going back to the mainland US for the first time in close to four years on November 16, because Fanfan actually got her visa! I wish of course I'd be going back to celebrate a Democratic victory, but hey, it's going to be nice at least to see the extended family and my friends from college, Drew and Dave. The thing that excites me most is ( Read more... )