Love across the Border

He speaks no Chinese. She doesn't understand English. But they got married by fate, and live happily for love. In a small town in eastern China, John and Fang Qin just had their newborn son.

With the broader communication between China and other countries in the world, transnational marriage is no longer a rare thing here, especially in big coastal cities.
Even in some small towns in the country's east, love also gets over language barriers and yields blissful marriages. Today we tell you a love story between a British engineer and a Chinese salesgirl, happily ever after.

John Lewis Money is a British engineer in his 50s, who works in China but speaks no Chinese. Fang Qin is a 30-year-old woman who works in a local supermarket but understands no English. They met each other for the first time as customer and salesgirl in 2006, in a small town called Wukang in eastern China's Zhejiang Province.

"My first day in Wukang, I stayed in the Holiday Inn hotel. I brought English tea and I needed milk. So I found a big supermarket, the main supermarket. Fang Qin was in charge of the dairy section. And I was looking at milk. She came over and tried to sell me milk. Affection wouldn't be the right word. She interested me. She was funny. Even though I couldn't understand what she was saying, she was funny."

Fang Qin says she was nice to John just because she wanted to be a good salesperson.

"I took the milk he had chosen out of his basket, and put in the products I was promoting. I thought foreigners have a lot of money, so that everything seems free to them. So I put as many as possible, even more than he needed. But he's not angry. He smiled to me and then walked away. To me, it's just business."

John was still a stranger to China and didn't know any one in town. Fang Qin's help and smile were like sunshine to him. It was so important that he went to that supermarket to visit the salesgirl everyday.

"Fang Qin can communicate with her eyes. And there's always laughing. 99% of the time there is always happiness. I'm drawn to people like that. I like people who are happy, positive, and generally like life. And Fang Qin, obviously, even though I couldn't understand her, couldn't speak to her, I could understand she loved life and I love people like that."

Though Fang Qin doesn't understand English, there are still ways to figure it out. One of the most-frequently used tools is translate.google.com. John often printed out the translated version of what he wanted to say, and give it to Fang Qin. He invited her to parties, outings, and Fang Qin accepted.

This is a typical prelude of their date.

"I took a photograph of the bridge, and I gave it to her. And I put a clock with the time on it, and the date, and an arrow to where it was."

Actually, through several months' association, Fang Qin fell in love with this romantic British gentleman, too. But Fang thought herself as a migrant worker with little education, low income and divorced. She had no pluck to accept the knowledgeable decent foreign guy as her love.

"When he proposed to me for the first time, I said it is impossible for us to be together. We don't know each other that well. I can't be his wife."

In China, marriage is not only about the couple. It involved the whole family. Parents' opinion always matters. Fang Qin's mother had urged her to find a good husband since she got divorced several years ago, but never expected a foreigner as her son-in-law.

"He's so much older than you. This is one thing. Another thing is, he's a foreigner! What if he left here? What would you do then? He's lying to you. How can you marry such a man for life? I scolded her like this. I thought she was not practical."

Thus, Fang Qin refused. John understood, but he never gave up.

"It's difficult for a Chinese lady to go out with a western man. It's difficult for them, isn't it? Because everybody looks, everybody talks, and everything we do in Wukang, people know about it. So it is difficult."

To drive out Fang Qin's hesitation, John rented a three-storage building in town and started a British restaurant. Fang Qin was appointed to be the manager. And when the head office called him back to the UK, John chose to quit, and to stay in China. The sincerity finally moved Fang Qin and her family. The couple got married last year.

"We're just a very gradual thing and I said, look, I'm here in China for the seeable future, and, you know, I hadn't said it out I was in love with you, but I would very much like to make this much more permanent than it is now. I mean, it doesn't sound particularly romantic but it's just gradual."

Now Fang Qin's mother knows her daughter has found her Mr. Right.

"John treats her like a little baby. He gently pats her from time to time. They are living a really happy life."

Fang Qin felt envied by many other girls, too.

"Everybody says to me, you are so happy now, as the rat falls into a rice jar."

John remembers the old saying in his hometown.

"We're married and in England we say 'Until death us do part'!"

But there are also little conflicts happening in daily life. John recalls.

"In the west, we don't turn off electricity and we don't turn off the taps, and things as much as we should do. Fang Qin is very very angry with me if I leave even the light on in the kitchen. I'm slowly learning. Even now, Fang Qin says, John, the light is on in the kitchen! And I have to run into the kitchen and set the light off. I don't save the shower. This is another thing. We have to save water in the shower, and so we can put it in the washing machine."

This July, a healthy son was born into the family. The couple are busy learning parental skills and feeling blessed.

"He's just beautiful. He's a miracle. And he's special because he's half-English, half-Chinese. He's unique, so we think he's beautiful. We're very happy with him. He is waiting to get his big nose. His big nose will grow."

Fang Qin says they are so happy together that John would like to do anything for her.

"Now I'm feeling his will to give me everything, even the stars in the sky."