How I became the top xianxia, xuanhuan and wuxia writer and translator

I am a translator and writer who specializes in Chinese fantasy genres such as wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan. I work primarily for Wuxiaworld.com, but also do freelance work and personal projects. My lovely wife is my greatest support, and provides me immense help in all of the content I create. 

I was born and raised in San Diego, California. In the year 2000, it was because of the wuxia movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that I developed a deep interest in China and Chinese culture. In 2004 I took a month-long trip to China, and after returning, I started studying Mandarin. Shortly after, I landed a new job in the game industry in New York City, and moved to the Little Fuzhou section of Manhattan Chinatown. In 2010 I relocated to Hebei province, China, where I worked as a teacher, and eventually, as a manager at a private English school. I remained in China for 8 years, during which time I traveled extensively within both China and Southeast Asia in general. 

A few years after moving to China, I started translating wuxia books to improve my reading ability. This quickly turned into one of my main hobbies. In 2015, after completing four wuxia novels, I started translating Chinese fantasy web literature full-time for Wuxiaworld.com under the moniker Deathblade. To date, I have translated over 13,000,000 Chinese characters, making me one of the most prolific individual translators of Chinese fantasy in the world, and an expert xuanhuan, xianxia, and wuxia writer.

In 2019, I moved back to California after eight straight years in China, bringing my family with me. My wife Yuanyuan is a native of Hebei province, as is our son, who is now four. The newest addition to our family is our daughter, who, like her father, is a native of California. 

If you'd like to hear a more detailed account of how I ended up as a translator, you can check out the full story here.