ABOUT
ANDREW SINGER
Andrew Singer is an author, writer, and speaker on China and Chinese-America, as well as a traveler and history lover. He strives to promote cross-cultural awareness, connections, and communities.
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"I have a passion and that passion
is China."
From history to culture to society to language to architecture and beyond, I have been interested in China and things Chinese since I was a little boy growing up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Cape Cod is a sandy flexed arm of American soil jutting into the North Atlantic that is about as far away from China as you can get.
I am often asked,
“Why China?”
I could say it is because my parents planted a seed when they told a little me that if I dig deep enough in our backyard sandbox, I would reach China. I could say it is because my mother also has a fascination with the East (which I did not know then). The joke at home is that I must have been Chinese in an earlier life. This last possibility may be closest to the mark.
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We visited my grandparents’ cottage on Sebago Lake in Maine for Labor Day weekend before school started each summer. I was drawn to a small Chinese curio sitting on a shelf in the cozy living room near the sofa. It was an ornate ivory bridge, about five inches long, spanning a stream. A little, bent-over man made of wood pulled a cart with delicate wheels. There might have been animals too. Two decades later, my dad told me that when I left for college, his mother told him that she always knew China would be a part of my life because I gave her that Chinese curio when I was a young boy.
MY FIRST TRIP
AND BEYOND
I made my way to China for the first time in 1986 as a college junior and have returned several times since. I have written a memoir about this coming of age journey. I write articles and a regular newsletter and deliver lectures on China and Chinese America. I enjoy researching in my library of books about China. I am a member of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society and have several dozen snuff bottles in my collection. At one point, I was a Chinese translator. If there is an opportunity to travel to China and Asia or attend museum exhibitions near and far or to talk about his passion, I jump at the opportunity.
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I am a traveler and a history lover. I long ago returned to and once again live on Cape Cod. When I am not working, I have driven across America on an epic road trip, skydived over Southeastern Massachusetts, and hiked the Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, through Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia, and climbed Mayan ruins in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. I am training now for hiking in Bhutan later in 2024.
