Syd Goldsmith
Syd Goldsmith (born July 27, 1938) is an American writer residing in Taiwan and a former diplomat. He has been featured in the South China Morning Post, on CNN, and by other media outlets. Goldsmith is the author of two fiction and one non-fiction books—Jade Phoenix, Two Musicians and The Wife Who Isn’t and Hong Kong on the Brink: An American Diplomat Relives 1967's Darkest Days — as well as numerous news op-ed articles. Early life Goldsmith was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to Jamaica, Queens as a boy. He graduated from Montclair High School in 1956 and attended Columbia University. Career Diplomat As a diplomat, he served in the Consulate General of the United States, Hong Kong, and Macau during the 1967 Hong Kong riots, the United States Embassy in Taipei, Taiwan (1970-1974), and subsequently as the director of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Branch Office, a de facto American consulate during Taiwan's transformation from a martial law dictatorship to the first ever Chinese democracy. Writer Goldsmith published his first novel, Jade Phoenix, in 2006. In the novel, a U.S. journalist and a Taiwanese businessman overcome huge cultural differences and become the closest of friends, only to