About Lao Ma - Old Horse

Lao Ma is an American businessman, designer, writer, and artist who has spent the better part of his life moving between cultures, building things, and paying attention.

He grew up in the United States and graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in finance. His first career took him in an unexpected direction — twenty years as a Criminal Investigator for the US government, work that taught him to read people, read situations, and trust what he observed over what he was told.

After that, he built furniture factories in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, running them for fifteen years before the business led him to China. That was over two decades ago. He never really left.

China changed him. Not all at once, but steadily, the way the land changes things in his writing. He settled into life across two provinces — Guangdong and Fujian — working as a consultant, product developer, and designer. He learned to sit at tables where he didn't understand everything being said and found that it didn't matter. What mattered was showing up, staying curious, and letting things take the time they needed.

His wife Zhiying is Hakka, Chinese. Through her, he was given access to something he could not have found on his own — the villages, the families, the food, the stories, the particular warmth of people who have always known how to make do with what they have and give away more than they can spare. Her family gave him a name: Lao Ma, Old Horse. It stuck.

He has published three books and developed several blockchain NFT projects exploring Japanese culture. Winter Honey is his first novel.

He is married, has two sons, and splits his time between Guangdong and Fujian.

He is still paying attention.