They may be brushing up on Mandarin inside the Forbes Media empire.
China-based Fosun International is now said to be in final negotiations to land Forbes and its related digital properties.
One source said the deal could be announced as early as this week — or early next week.
Fosun is a diversified, closely-held conglomerate that last year purchased 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza for $725 million and already publishes the Chinese edition of the magazine.
A report last week, in The Deal, had Fosun as the winner already. It quoted sources saying the price tag will be in the $250 million range — far below the $400 million that Deutsche Bank, which is handling the sale, said in November it hoped to fetch.
As Media Ink first reported, Steve Forbes may be staying on board with a minority stake.
Speculation is that Forbes will keep up to 20 percent.
Not clear is if Steve Forbes will buy out his three brothers, Timothy, Christopher and Robert, and sister Moira, plus their extended family partners — or if the Forbes family as a bloc would keep a stake.
Some are speculating that Steve Forbes will get a private-equity backer to front the money so he can buy out the relatives.
That may be the only way the family members will get any return, because their current partner in Forbes Media, Elevation Partners, hold preferred shares and would get paid first.
Elevation, headed by Roger McNamee, also counts Irish rocker Bono, of U2, as an investor.
It paid about $264 million for a 40 percent stake in the company way back in 2007.
With the price tag in the $250 million range, it would mean a Steve buyout of his siblings and other family members would be the only money realized by the Scottish clan.