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James has an honours degree in Chinese from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, graduating in 1981 with special papers in Pre-Han archaeology and early Buddhist sculpture. Whilst waiting for the world to catch up with the importance of China, he spent periods as an oriental art dealer, selling to museums and collectors worldwide, and as an operating theatre nurse, and trained as a primary school teacher. For seven years he was the China Education Manager at the British Museum, and then joined the UCL Institute of Education Confucius Institute, as Primary Network Coordinator, leading a five-year project to develop and support primary school Mandarin. He currently works freelance as an education consultant and translator of contemporary Chinese fiction (with an apparent specialisation in historical fiction).