Joshua
    Samuel
         Brown

...is a writer and photojournalist who has tramped the globe since late adolescence, writing for publications illustrious and too numerous to fit in this tagline.

Offering tales of Betel-nut beauties and tips on avoiding jail time by impersonating a Mormon, his first solo book Vignettes of Taiwan is available at Amazon.

His most recent co-productions, Fodor's China 5th Edition and Lonely Planet Taiwan (seventh edition),  are available online and wherever fine travel publications are bought and shoplifted by reprobates. 

Usually erudite, occasionally opinionated and sometimes bizarre, Snarky Tofu : cultural observations of a narcissist guidebook writer is Josambro's way of communicating with the world at large from the road.

Currently updating the Lonely Planet guide of an undisclosed tropical nation, Josambro is too busy to update his website, and possibly too malarial to remember to refer to himself in third person. Below are some nice things that people have written about me:

“JSB manages to survive life off the beaten track in Asia with his wonderful secret weapon: a nuclear-weapons-grade sense of humor.”
~ Nury Vittachi, Author of The Feng Shui Detective series

"The Rudyard Kipling of professional boxing...the Lance Armstrong of economic planning."

~ Lago Von Slack, ESQ.

"A Classic Narcissist"

~ R. Deming, Author / Yale Lecturer
Ongoing Work
Archives
The 2005 Yahuda Bangs Archive
Selected
Politics & Other Dirty Words
2000 - 2005

Albion Monitor
Antiwar.com
Political and Media
Spiritual
Friend's Sites & Blogs
Random

Featured Journalistic Forays

A Year in the Isles of Wind ~ Topics Magazine
Not long into my wife's one year contract at a small school here in Penghu, we both realized we were desperate to leave. I know what you're thinking: If this is a travel article, we’re off to a bad start...

Goodbye to All That ~ Asia Sentinel
As Yangshuo sheds its backpack-friendly trappings for Qing-chic pretenses, businesses like Linda's may well find themselves an anachronism in a town selling its own sanitized version of antiquity.

Kingdom of ashes ~ HK Weekend Standard
The future of the Mosuo tribe is hazy after commercial development threatens to restore a fire ravaged village, Disney-style

Starfish, Scorpions & Lizards on Sticks ~ Business Traveler Asia.
"It's dried tiger penis extract. It'll make you able to have sex all night long," he says, offering me enough for a week-long orgy for three hundred Yuan.

Verboten Mountain ~ Weekend Standard / Things Asian
...But Chairman Mao didn’t have to bribe the park authorities to get in, and we did.

A Hong Kong Cat's Tale ~ Cat Fancy
A heartwarming tale of cats and people who like seeing cats neutered.

Spring Scream in the Year of the Dog ~ HK Weekend Standard
When the lead singer screamed "Hello how are you I'm fine and you please give me some toast and eggs"at the crowd, I was gripped with metal blood lust and nearly knocked myself unconscious bashing my head against the stage.

Not your everyday doctors ~ HK Weekend Standard
Meet the dashing doctors of ISOS, escorting the ill, injured and occasionally deranged across the globe...

Magic in the Cards ~ HK Weekend Standard
A fantasy game is thinking big about its future fan base in China

Seven Hours in the Soul of Seoul ~ Things Asian
Despite the well known Korean love of brawling, I'm surprised at the sight of two middle-aged denim-clad men beating the shit out of each other on the sidewalk...

Monks, Baguettes & Shopping Too ~ Things Asian / City Weekend
The French left their subjects with an appreciation for coffee and baguettes.

Going Nowhere on the Bolivan Plateau ~ Things Asian
Using a bamboo pole I'd picked up to ward off snakes I slowly battered a path to the source of the roar...

Hard and soft ~ HK Weekend Standard
"In my country we call this a police hold,'' I say, wincing in pain. "Yes," replies the sensei. "In mine we use it for that too.''

Open Prison ~ South China Morning Post
It's my second trip to Green Island, home of Taiwan's once feared political prison. And once again, a transvestite is involved.

The Fool Monty ~ South China Morning Post
...Michael Palin is no stranger to dealing with mystified geeks...

Confessions Of A Sweatshop Inspector ~ Albion Monitor
"Calvin Klein, Wal-mart, Kathie Lee: They all want the same thing. Chinese labor, the cheaper the better..."

In the Boot Camp of the Mind ~ Topics
All sensation shares the same quality of impermanence. An itch, an ache, a pain. They all are born. They all rise, then they disappear.

Daughters of Mother Lake ~ Clamor Magazine
All-You-Can-Eat Mutton, Walking Marriages, and the future of the Mosuo matriarchal society.

Late Night Taipei Smackdown ~ Things Asian
It was a hot August night in Taipei, and I was about to be beaten up in public, perhaps severely.

Searching for Pablo ~ South China Morning Post
I emerged from the darkened auditorium with all thoughts of Picasso gone, replaced by visions of myself leading an upwardly mobile urban lifestyle.

Newfoundland, Codless and Charming South China Morning Post
...We made good time, and were soon crossing over the narrow isthmus onto the Avalon Peninsula, on the easternmost edge of which lay St. John's, and the promised drunken debauchery.

Minority Rapport - Return to Mother lake with Namu Yang ~ South China Morning Post
"I read these articles about my so-called promiscuity...Wow, if only I were this person that everybody thinks I am, maybe I wouldn't be so damned lonely."

~
All articles copyright Joshua Samuel Brown, all rights reserved.
Contact for reprint rights.
Previous version of www.josambro.com; like this one, but with way more articles
This page last updated on Dec 3, 2007
None-too recent CV online