A bit about me

The short version

I’m Australian, I live in Beijing with my family, and I’ve been going back and forth between the two countries for most of my adult life. Everything I do turns out to be the same job: getting something from one side to the other — a product, an idea, or a person who has just landed and can’t read the menu.

Television, then film

I presented Rediscovering China on CCTV’s English channel, which meant a lot of travelling and a lot of interviews — Kobe Bryant, the Belgian royal family, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Then I acted, mostly in Chinese films, including some big ones, which is what Australia’s Today show had me on to talk about. Eventually I moved behind the camera and produced film and television instead.

Then business

Among the things I’ve had a hand in: an e-commerce store selling Australian products to Chinese families, and one of the first crowdfunded electric hydrofoil surfboards, now sold around the world. What I enjoy is the part they share — connecting people on both sides of this border. For fifteen years I built an audience on Chinese social media — around eighty thousand Chinese mothers, and more than a hundred and twenty thousand followers on Douyin, China’s TikTok. Some of them still call me 澳洲爸爸汤姆, Aussie Dad Tom, which was the name of the WeChat store I ran selling Australian products into China through my company here.

The sidecar

I once drove across China in a Second World War-style motorcycle sidecar with my dog Zack, a blue heeler from Australia, riding in it. We made a documentary out of it. Still the best idea I have ever had, and the least comfortable. Here’s the trailer.

Off the clock

I read philosophy, and I fall down holes about quantum mechanics, mythology and neuroscience. There’s a master’s degree in progress that I may even finish. When I get back to Australia I’m usually on an electric hydrofoil.

What I’m building now

• Laonei — a translator and survival guide for foreigners living in China.
• thexchange.app — an invite-only board for people doing business across the China border.
• Dealio — a way for Australians to be paid from China by WeChat Pay.

Doing business here

Twenty years across this border, both directions — selling in, finding people worth dealing with, working out whether a price or a promise is real. I consult on it now. If you’re moving here, selling here, or building something that crosses the border, tell me what you’re stuck on and I’ll tell you what I’d do.