Here’s the takeaway: AsiaBizBlog will continue, but with a somewhat modified approach.
Over the past decade, I’ve focused AsiaBizBlog on Chinese business and law, thus contributing, I think, in a small way, to Western understanding of Chinese business behavior.
Longstanding readers may have noticed that, more recently, AsiaBizBlog’s focus has changed. Indeed, my interest has turned away from the “hard” subjects to the “soft,” such as film, language, culture.
Over the past three months, I’ve not found it possible to post at all: I’ve not discovered a single matter on business and law on which I might post anything worthwhile, relevant, timely or enlightening to add to the conversation about modern China.
And so, I’ve decided to return to my first love: the Chinese language, and specifically to the voicing of Mandarin. Having spoken this vast, profound and intensely pleasing language for over 30 years, I’ve attained to a level of native ability in voicing it. How one might achieve accurate mandarin voicing — which I believe is within the grasp of just about every person — is the knowledge I wish to contribute and AsiaBizBlog will be one means of so doing. I have worked informally for many years with speakers both of English and mandarin and have seen immediate results from my instruction. My sense is that there is a wide audience for such instruction.
I expect to post topics other than language from time to time — historical curiosities, music, film, classical Chinese, oddities of daily life, etc. — but rarely, I think, regarding business, affairs of State and law about which I’ve written in the past. My apologies to those who come to this site for the contrarian commentary on China rarely seen elsewhere on the net, but it is time for a change. Stay tuned, there is a lot more to come!
