Daniel Otero

I am proud to say that I’m a writer, roughly been one since I got the “writing bug” 27 years earlier, and have been one on and off.

However, my career didn’t start taking off with writing until 2003 — when I began writing for the Spanish daily newspaper, El Nuevo Dia (in translation it means A New Day). I did work in their Op-ed and Travel Sections for several years. I later transitioned to Canadian Solo Travel.

But the truth is, my career didn’t begin to elevate itself until 2009. That was when I came to China. I went on to write my weekly and monthly columns for Just Landed, the Hangzhou Weekly, That’s China (Zhejiang Province) and the Nanjinger (Jiangsu Province).

I haven’t always agreed with China, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love this country for its people and culture. Further, it doesn’t mean that I am not grateful for all the opportunities it has given me.

By 2015, I was able to spend three glorious years with the Beijing Global Times Metro Section, working with a fabulous editor called Liu Ming. She was one of my greatest teachers and I learned plenty from her. Then I went to Future Handling in Hong Kong (2016-present), Shenzhen Daily (2020-present) and thanks to other opportunities given to me by friends, I began writing also for websites in “Changsha, Hunan: WNIC” (2019-present) and “World Insights” (2021).

It has been a wonderful experience which few can dream of. While in China, I wrote my first two books and got them published. “Galician Memories” (2016) back in the U.S. and “The Artist of War” (2020) was a dream come true in the U.K.

I am not perfect by any means, but I do my best every day with love, care and passion.

Furthermore, I don’t believe in doing nothing. Those who complain and do nothing are fools. I believe in doing something with desire. Therefore, I work with all my heart and as excellently as possible. These are just the chances that possibly will not repeat themselves for me with China’s new era of openness.

Maybe I am too ambitious and want to be in the league or at least try to reach the heels of the following: Edgar Snow (author of “The Red Star Over China” and biographer to Mao Zedong; Pearl Buck (professor at Nanjing University, author of “The Good Earth” and Nobel Prize Winner in Literature); Ruth F. Weiss who is a Jewish-born Chinese-Austrian educator, journalist and lecturer; and Peter Hessler, author of four non-fiction books who was a correspondent in Beijing for China Daily between 2000 and 2007.

These are all adventurers who came, fell in love with China, its culture and wrote about their existence here. Probably I could do the same, imitate and write like Ruth F. Weiss. I guess I will write my own story about China, and learn even more from this country that never ceases to amaze me.