Jim Goodman

I was born in Washington, D.C., raised mostly in Cincinnati and left my country for permanent residence in Asia in autumn, 1972. I lived in South Korea for four years, then Nepal for eleven years and since the beginning of 1988 my home base has been Chiang Mai. But I don’t stay there all year, for I still make regular research trips to Yunnan, China, Vietnam and other neighboring places.

While in Nepal I worked with ethnic minorities, specifically Mizos from Northeast India and Newars from Bhaktapur, in vegetable-dyed textile production. In Thailand I have worked with the Akha people in traditional handicrafts production in the northern hills. Besides acquiring new labor skills—I was the dyer and designer—the work gave me valuable insights into the different cultural norms and ways of thinking of traditional societies in this region.

My writing and photography reflects my fascination with history, traditional cultures and ethnic minorities, not just in the ethnologies, cultural studies and histories I’ve published, but in my fiction and poetry as well. I have published books in Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, China and Vietnam. Recently I have ventured into publishing e-books and won’t have to wait for publishers to decide whether and when. Considering the great amount of material I have collected over the years, to me this means I can be sure there will be more books to come.