Simon Elegant

Simon Elegantwas the Southeast Asia bureau chief forDowJones News Service, the Hong Kong arts and society editorand Malaysia correspondent forFar Eastern Economic Review,the Beijing bureau chief and Southeast Asia correspondentforTimemagazine, and taught undergraduate modern Chinesehistory at the Beijing Center for China Studies. Among the sixlanguages he speaks are Mandarin and Malay. He is the author oftwo previous novels,A Chinese Wedding(Piatkus), andAFloating Life(Ecco/Harper), a fictional biography of China’sgreatest poet, Li Bai. He was also the founding partner andinvestor in Temple Restaurant Beijing, the goto restaurant fortop-end Continental dining in China’s capital.