Images by James Wasserman

When Danwei was blocked in the Chinese mainland earlier this year, the news portal lost 30% of its readership overnight. Someone newer to the country might have panicked, but 15 years in China had taught the website's creator, Jeremy Goldkorn, that you have to roll with the punches, adapt, and not be too surprised or overly discouraged by events outside of your control.

Arriving in China back in 1995, South African Goldkorn did what many foreigners do on their first stay to China; he taught English. Yet two years later he would start on a ...... parent site.

The Danwei team is small, just a handful of individuals, and Goldkorn does not want it much bigger – “I prefer it small, flexible and quirky, and not to have shareholders breathing down my neck.” This freedom also allows the team to focus on Goldkorn's other stated goal for the company; to explain and translate Chinese voices for the rest of the world. He may not have realized it early on, but for the last 15 years that is precisely what Goldkorn has been doing.