[jibal]

Paul Linebarger aka Cordwainer Smith, while not British and not in China in his early years, did spend a lot time in China and wrote original, inventive, and outright weird sf.

A weird personal story: I was once in a bar (I'm virtually never in bars), was quite tipsy (I almost never am), and happened to sit next to a woman named Joan, whom I found myself speaking to (a very rare event) and, being a drunken awkward nerd I said that her name made me think of the undergirl D'Joan, a principal character in Smith's story The Dead Lady of Clowntown. When I said "Cordwainer Smith" she said "Oh, Dr. Paul Linebarger". I nearly fell off my stool. I asked her how she knew ... was she a fan of his work? Oh no ... she had lived in China where her father was a colleague of Linebarger's and the families often dined together. (I have no recollection of what we said to each other after that -- I was too flabbergasted.)