Simon Elegant

SIMON ELEGANT is an award winning journalist, novelist and screenwriter. Until 2026, he was China Bureau Chief for THE WASHINGTON POST, having earlier served in the same role for TIME magazine. His most recent novel is CITY ON FIRE, a mystery set in Hong Kong during the anti-government protests of 2019. Publishers Weekly said of CITY ON FIRE: "Striking just the right balance between tension and emotional depth, this bruising thriller delivers the goods."

Elegant's previous novels are: A CHINESE WEDDING, about an American woman who marries into a Hong Kong family; and A FLOATING LIFE, about the great Tang dynasty poet Li Bai, which was described by the New York Times as "“summoning up the man and his age in ways that are both deliciously foreign and all too familiar.”

Elegant is also a founding partner of the acclaimed Temple Restaurant Beijing.