Encounters

Wenzhang caught our attention because of his involvement in writing last year's State of the World's Volunteerism Report (SWVR), which for the first time included two cases from China based on field research. And in another first, the report was published in Chinese in China. This signifies the big strides China has made taking part in international volunteerism.

David Lai graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music, one of China’s top music schools. In his class, he is the only student who is totally blind. Back in 2015, David was one of the first batch of visually impaired students who sat China’s national college entrance exam, instead of sitting a specialized exam tailored for blind people.

When I was told that my next interviewee, David Lai, was a young blind pianist whose talent has won domestic and international acclaim, I was uncertain about how close I’d be able to get to him to dig into his life for a profile story. Despite having worked in radio for several decades, this was my first interview with a blind person, or more accurately, with a person with a physical disability.

As it stands today, only a few thousand tigers are left in the wild. Their habitat and the prey they rely on for their survival are disappearing and some species have already died out. Some people may argue that if we don’t take their lives they will take ours. People like Grace Gabriel are out there to remind people that beast such as tigers, lions, leopards, and cheetahs are ferocious only when they are hungry and threatened.

“Animals are not moving objects!” This is the strongest message I received from Grace Ge Gabriel, a through and through animal conservationist who has been leading the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) office in China since she founded it in 1997, fighting battles at the forefront of wildlife protection, something rather remote from my own life and career.

Joy Chen is well known in China for becoming the deputy mayor of Los Angeles at the age of 31 and her book ‘Do Not Marry before Age 30’. But one could hardly imagine although she was born and grew up in the United States, she didn’t speak any English when she entered kindergarten.

Joy Chen is well known in China for becoming the deputy mayor of Los Angeles at the age of 31 and for her 2012 book “Do Not Marry Before Age 30”. She learned the frog bubble story from her five-year-old daughter whose teacher taught mindfulness to their class at a very young age.

Early in 2005, David Ferguson found himself at a restaurant table sitting in front of a plate of cold pickled chickens' feet. He was in Beijing en route to his first visit to his wife's hometown, a city called Jilin in China's northeast. There was a time when China had been way off David's radar, but that time was already long gone when he first encountered his new in-laws.

Early in 2005, David Ferguson found himself at a restaurant table sitting in front of a plate of cold pickled chickens' feet. He was in Beijing en route to his first visit to his wife's hometown, a city called Jilin in China's northeast. There was a time when China had been way off David's radar, but that time was already long gone when he first encountered his new in-laws.

Zoon Ahmed, a Pakistani researcher and anchorwoman based in Beijing, has emerged into the limelight thanks to her active and high-profile role in media cooperation and academic exchanges between China and her home country.