Simon D. B. Elegant received his B.A. in History (with a minor in Chinese) from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.A. in International Relations from Cambridge University, where he wrote his thesis on British gunboat diplomacy in China, 1927-1949. The former Beijing bureau chief for TIME magazine, he worked as a correspondent and editor in Asia throughout the past two decades, and won two major awards for his writing on human rights issues and the challenges of economic development. Mr. Elegant is the author of two novels--both of which focus on China--A Chinese Wedding (London, 1995) and A Floating Life (Princeton, 1997).