CNBC's Martin Soong is Talking Books

CNBC Asia's lead presenter, Martin Soong, host of Asia Squawk Box, has given an interview to Star eCentral about his ambitions as an author.  Soong talks about two books that he plans to write, with the first one about his late father, a fourth-generation Hawaiian Chinese, who was also a journalist.  Soong said;  "My father was a journalist and later, a war correspondent. In the 1950s he started Asia Magazine, which was an insert in national newspapers in the States,” says the Chinese American who was born in Hong Kong but grew up in the United States.  The magazine was the first product about the Asian community in the English language. You could say it was the Asian version of Life magazine."

Discussing his second book idea, Soong said that he would like to write about the black market.  He said; "In certain countries, experts believe the black market makes up a third of the real economy! I want to talk about whether it is worthwhile to make it official.  I am not talking about (making official) vice activities like prostitution, money laundering, organised crime and whatnot. I am talking about the two-bit hawkers and the night markets and many other ‘legal’ money-generating businesses that can be found in most countries. Watch this space."

Soong went on to discuss his career, finishing the interview by saying; "The modern era is where we are now, which people like to refer to as the CNN-isation of TV. CNBC is part of that, I don’t deny.  Then we look to the future and you see broadcast journalism going in a whole new direction. We are going mobile and wireless. We can now reach a broader audience faster and easier. So the possibilities are endless!"

Read the full article here.