BBC News just featured me and my husband in an article titled “Mixed marriages in China a labour of love.” And even though I’ve already seen the article, I still can’t believe it. Wow!
If you haven’t read it yet, here’s a snippet of the full article:
“From the first time I started to love a Chinese man, hiding became part of my life,” says American Jocelyn Eikenburg.
She had moved to Shanghai in 2003 to be with her now-husband Jun Yu.
“In the past, students had been expelled for dating or marrying foreigners. We didn’t know what would happen if the university administration found out, so we told no-one he was living off-campus with me,” she says.
A foreign woman with a Chinese man is a rare pairing.
Within her small expat community the social isolation was almost immediate. She felt alienated by her girlfriends, who would openly express their distaste for Chinese men.
“I felt alone in being married to a Chinese man and I wanted to find other people to connect with,” says Ms Eikenburg about her decision in 2009 to share her experiences on her blog, Speaking of China.
My thanks to BBC Journalist Zoe Murphy for contacting me for an interview. You can visit the BBC News website to read the full article in its entirety. And as always, if you love it, share it!
And stay tuned — Zoe Murphy also interviewed Jo of Life Behind the Wall, so expect to see Jo on the BBC website as well.
P.S.: Note that the article originally misspelled my last name (which I’ve corrected in the quote above and have requested that the BBC correct). So in case you’re doing a double take when you’re reading it, no, it’s still Eikenburg.