Susan Blumberg-Kason a writer based in Chicago. She first visited China just after high school graduation in 1988 and was hooked. After an exchange year in Hong Kong during university, Susan knew she wanted to make Asia her home. She returned to Hong Kong in the mid-1990s to pursue an MPhil in Government and Public Administration. In her first semester of graduate school, she met and became engaged to a musician from Hubei province in central China. Susan got her start in publishing after graduating in 1996 and securing a job at a university press in Hong Kong. Two years later Susan and her husband moved to San Francisco when his Hong Kong visa expired. In San Francisco, Susan continued to work as an editor in a university setting. Her son Jake was born in 1998 and her marriage dissolved in 2000. She is currently working on a memoir titled Good Chinese Wife, which chronicles her multi-cultural first marriage. She is also the books editor for Asian Jewish Life (www.asianjewishlife.org), a magazine that celebrates the Jewish experience across Asia. It was after Susan left Hong Kong and China that she became fascinated by the Jewish communities in China during World War II. This year Susan started to speak to audiences about Jews in China during war. In her spare time, she hangs out with her Chicago-born husband and three kids. She enjoys exposing all of her kids to Chinese culture and recently visited Hong Kong for the first time in 14 years.

It was great chatting to Susan, someone I've been writing pieces for for nigh on a year now - all previous contacts been solely limited to email, so it was nice to put a voice to the words for once!

This interview ranges over why Jewish people came to China before the Second World War, and why they disappeared not long after, through Susan's own experiences in Hong Kong and Hubei, and what she's up to now in Chicago.

You can find out more about Susan at:

http://www.susanbkason.com !