About Asia Snapshots

AsiaSnapShots was founded by three University of Florida students who, after graduating, moved to different places in Asia. We had all previously been to Asia for study, work, or internships, and while there we had met some fascinating people. We figured rather than starting three more blogs about every mundane aspect of expatriate life in Asia, we’d collaborate on a project: telling the stories of the most interesting people we meet. So no, “through the eyes of the people changing it” isn’t pretentiousness – it’s complimentary toward the people that we cover.

Our writers live in different parts of a massively large continent and have different focuses and interests, but we still have a cohesive theme – that Asia is a rapidly developing and changing place full of people whose stories are worth telling. With our breadth of focus, we hope to be able to cover a wide variety of topics, including politics, economics, language, media, arts, cinema, pop culture and more.

About the Authors

Michael Horn became fascinated with China after David Borenstein dragged him there to do a teaching internship during one summer as an undergraduate. He has worked as a teacher and translator throughout China, traveled to 11 of China’s 22 provinces, and currently works for an investment consulting company in Hangzhou. His academic interests include modern literature, film and media culture, and linguistics. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chinese and English from the University of Florida, and one of these days will get around to going to grad school. When not blogging on AsiaSnapShots.com, Michael enjoys reading, cinema, cooking, and competitive games.

Matt Schwarz is a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow. His research examines two major areas of Vietnamese political economy: the ways in which multinational corporations influence Vietnamese economic policy and the structural determinants of foreign direct investment. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Florida in 2009 and intends to enroll in the Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy program at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy in September 2010. When he isn’t blogging at AsiaSnapShots.com, Matt can usually be found running, reading, or watching the same movies (Rounders, Rocky, and Wall Street) over and over again.

David Borenstein is a 2009-2010 Fulbright Fellow based in Chengdu, China. His research looks at social and economic inequality in China’s countryside, and particularly how rural-urban internal migration trends have influenced rural civil society and distribution of resources. David has spent considerable time living and traveling in China, worked as a Chinese-English translator, and taught in Southeastern and Western China. Some of his most beloved pastimes are home brewing, wishing he could get good beer in China, seeing live music, and playing saxophone and clarinet with his Afro-Latin and Dixieland bands.