Steven Hirst was born and educated in Yorkshire, England and has lived and worked in Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, where he is currently based. After obtaining a degree in English from Wadham College, Oxford, he worked as assistant director to Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, at the Old Vic in London and the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and Stratford. He also worked in theatre in the UK as a freelance director on a variety of new and classic work. He has studied creative writing at Hong Kong University with Shirley Lim, Gish Jen and Xu Xi. More recently, he has been private language tutor to several internationally renowned Chinese film actors. His photography and writing has been published in Time Out Hong Kong and the Asia Literary Review. [View]