China Radio International recently interviewed me and the piece, titled Married to a Culture Clash, is now up on their site. Here’s a snippet from their introduction:
Jocelyn Eikenburg had never really thought about going to China. But when her University’s English teaching program led her to the Middle Kingdom, the Environmental Biology Major fell head over heels in love.
Despite only seeking a distraction, she found her direction, career and husband John, a Chinese man. On her blog “Speaking of China”, she is now exploring her own and other interracial relationships, love in general and how it is sometimes quite convenient to have Chinese in-laws.
Living in China, it is fairly normal to see a Chinese woman in the arms of a Western man. The sight of a Western woman with a Chinese man however is still somewhat unusual and that’s definitely part of what makes Jocelyn’s blog so inspirational.
Also, for those of you who have wondered what my voice sounds like, now’s your chance to hear me, instead of just reading my words. Listen to the full piece here, and if you like it, share it. Thanks!
Am I the onlyu one who find the cuasi-British accent, that typifies “formal” English in China, extremely pretentious?
@Henry Yeh, I am a chinese student with genuine british accent. when i do TA job on campus, no students complain about that.
“Am I the onlyu one who find the cuasi-British accent, that typifies “formal” English in China, extremely pretentious?”
Wow, have you ever thought about the interviewer might be from Australia? Guess no matther what Chinese do, they will always receive contempt. Even from other Asians.
Obviously, self-hate can be brain-washed.
The interviewer is actually a German woman, her name is Anne Gonschorek. But I hope readers — and listeners — will focus more on the content of the interview, not who happened to ask me questions, though I will say Anne was incredibly nice and very easy to work with.
@Jocelyn
Thanks for the explanation. I listened the entire piece. It is quite revealing and fascinating story. I foward it to my girlfriend. I am sure she would love it too.
Unfortunately the interview could not be played on my computer. Would love to hear how you sound when you speak though.
@ordinary malaysian, thanks for the heads up, I heard this from another reader as well.
What you might do is copy the link to the recording (mms://media.chinabroadcast.cn/en/news/reports/2012/02/0229jocelyn.wma) and then try to open it directly using your media player of choice.
Here are instructions for how to do this with Windows Media Player, or for QuickTime (“you can open a streaming media file (or event) by clicking the File menu and then choosing Open Location and entering the Internet address (the URL) for the movie file.”)
Let me know if that works.