Interviews Archives

Teaching physical education in Shenzhen, China: Interview with Claudio Piani

April 20, 2018 by Furio Fu Leave a Comment

Today we’ll interview Claudio Piani, who teaches physical education in the city of Shenzhen. You can follow Claudio’s adventures on his blog, Piani per la Cina (?).

If you’re interested in finding a job in China as a teacher (not just for physical education) I think you’ll find this interview extremely interesting!

Finding work in China as a teacher

Claudio, first of all thanks for agreeing to respond to my questions. Let’s get started right away: what gave you the idea to move to and work in China?

Hello to all the readers of “Taste of China” and thank you Furio for this motivating interview. I came up with the idea of moving to China to work about two years ago for various reasons. In 2014 I resigned from my job as a sporting operator in Milan to take an overland trip through Asia and Oceania.

The “pilgrimage” unexpectedly lasted for more than two years, in which I had the good fortune to cross China twice, first from north to south (Autumn 2014) and then from West to East (Summer 2016), causing me to fall in love with it.

It was actually during this period that I got the idea to move there to work, supported in part by the Chinese passion for basketball, the sport I taught in Italy.

How did you find a job? Did you use a specific website? An agency? Personal contacts? [Read more…]

Interview with Anna & Anna, founders of CinCucina, an Italian cooking school in Beijing

March 9, 2018 by Furio Fu Leave a Comment

Today we’ll interview Anna Reniero and Anna Cappelloni, founders of CinCucina, an Italian cooking school in Beijing, and authors of the cookbook of the same name. You’ll find them on Facebook!

Coming to Beijing and meeting

How and when did you arrive in China?

Anna Reniero: I arrived a year and a half ago from Paris. I’m an expat for almost 23 years and I had the good fortune to live in various European countries and the United States. This is my first experience in Asia. I can’t hide that once I arrived in Beijing, I felt a little lost.

Even though I’ve moved many times and I know the problems and difficulties that come with moving, China was a completely different country. I was completely in the dark with the written and spoken language and therefore understanding and communication was an impossibility, different foods and products, smells, customs and clothing, basically everything new, another world!

In addition it was my first move with my husband and little dog. In fact I have a daughter who goes to university and remained in Europe.

I have to say that right from the beginning people were nice and helpful, despite the language barrier. You can make yourself understood using gestures and with phone translators you manage to communicate a bit. In this way I think Italians and Chinese are very similar. [Read more…]

Discover new Chinese learning tools with Mandarin Weekly: Interview with the founder Reuven Lerner

February 2, 2018 by Furio Fu 2 Comments

Today we interview Reuven Lerner, founder of Mandarin Weekly, a website (and weekly newsletter) that provides you the last news and tools for learning Chinese online.

I discovered Mandarin Weekly years ago, while I was researching new Chinese learning tools for updating our articles on “Free Resources to Learn Chinese Online“. I’m a subscriber since then.

But let’s get started!

About Mandarin Weekly

Reuven, thank you for accepting this interview. Can you tell us something about your background and how you got into Chinese language?

I have been a software consultant with my own business since 1995. Over the last decade, most of my work has been as a trainer, going to high-tech companies and teaching their programmers the tools and technologies that I know well – Python, Git, and data science. (If you don’t know what those are, that’s fine!).

About five years ago, a training company based in China asked me to come and teach some courses at their clients’ offices. The courses went well, and I’ve been traveling to China 3-5 times each year ever since. I mostly go to Beijing and Shanghai, but was fortunate enough to go to Nanjing about two years ago, too.

Before my first trip, I asked several friends what I should expect. Two of them said that I should learn some Chinese. That, of course, sounded like crazy talk – after all, we know that Chinese is impossible to learn, right? The friends told me that the language isn’t so bad, and that learning at least a few words would be useful. [Read more…]

Interview with Elisa, Chinese teacher with a suitcase

July 15, 2016 by Furio Fu Leave a Comment

Today we’re interviewing Elisa Ferrero, who is 38 years old, teaches Chinese to students of all ages and arrived in China for the first time in 1999, when she was 21.

Elisa, what first brought you to China and what motivated you to do so?

I first came to China in 1999, when Beijing was a city that no longer exists today. This was a 3 month stay for study together with a dozen course-mates from the University of Turin.

It was my second year of school, and I wanted to begin getting to know the land, and also seriously evaluate if the graduate course in which I had enrolled, Languages and Foreign Literature with specialization in Chinese, would have gotten me anywhere.

I had to see the land whose language I was studying, since I was aware that behind the language there’s a world that you can’t help but get to know.

Now I can say that those 3 months changed my life.

Besides that first experience, how ling have you lived in China and in which city ?

Other than that first experience, I lived in China from 2004 to 2014 with a break of a year and a half the whole time in Beijing; there was only a brief stay in Shanghai, which I gave up almost immediately. [Read more…]

Interview with Lauro, international consultant between Wenzhou, Shenzhen and Italy

May 2, 2016 by Furio Fu 2 Comments

Today I have the opportunity to interview Lauro Marmiroli, international consultant for technology of production and formation for two Chinese firms, the first based in Wenzhou, in Zhejiang, and the second in Shenzhen, in Guangdong.

Lauro, first of all thanks for accepting the interview. You told me that you crossed the Chinese border for the first time in 2003. How did you arrive?

At that time I worked as a factory director for a company in Reggio Emilia, and the need to reduce costs to increase our competitiveness in the market, generated a program of material acquisition from countries with lower costs.

Given my past experience and knowing the process of smelting, I went to the area of Shanghai in search of foundries that could satisfy our requests of quality materials, processes and reliable delivery.

That firm to this day is supplied by the two foundries set up for our products. At that time I made two trips of three months each. [Read more…]

Expat Psychology: Interview with Paula

January 18, 2016 by Sborto Zhou Leave a Comment

In today’s interview, we chat with Paula Vexlir, a clinical psychologist and founder of the website ExpatPsi, an online platform for psychological support and information for Spanish-speaking expats.

What is ExpatPsi?

Hi Paula, thank you for accepting to do this interview. Can you explain to our readers a bit about what ExpatPsi is and the services you offer?

Thank you for inviting me. ExpatPsi was the result of many years of work helping expats and immigrants. I am a clinical psychologist and around 2002, I started to specialize in this field. I started to notice issues that repeated and faced with the lack of literature on the subject, I began research to evaluate the differences in the immigration of Spanish speakers.

ExpatPsi has three important aspects. One is its online psychology sessions so that people living outside of their country of origin can access a space in their native language with someone who understands their specific problem well. The second is a blog on which I share information, tools, theories, etc. with the end goal of helping through preventative care. Last of all, this year I also started to create courses and books to be able to help more people.

[Read more…]

The first Chinese Newspaper Simplified: Interview with Sean of The Chairman’s Bao

December 7, 2015 by Furio Fu Leave a Comment

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Today we interview Sean McGibney, Chief Marketing Officer of The Chairman’s Bao, a website dedicated to people that want to learn Chinese we discovered the past month.

Sean, thank you for accepting this interview. What is The Chairman’s Bao and in what way is different from the hundreds of websites that focus on Chinese learning?

We set out with one simple aim in creating The Chairman’s Bao (TCB) – to create engaging, informative and interesting levelled content for those who learn Chinese. It offers a great sense of achievement to be able to read news in a target language, but the nature of Chinese makes it extremely difficult for non-native speakers to read newspapers. Add into the mix a gap in intermediate to advanced resources for learning Chinese and TCB was born!

How and when was your online newspaper born?

In reality TCB was a couple of years in the planning but the website launched back in January 2015. It has been a rollercoaster 10 months but one that has also been greatly rewarding for all involved.

Let’s suppose I’m studying Chinese and I end up on your website for the first time. How can I make the most of it?

We start writing articles at HSK 3, so ideally users will already have a solid knowledge of beginner’s Chinese. Upon signing up to the website, you not only have access to our full back catalogue of articles, but also a whole host of interactive features such as a live dictionary that scrolls as you read, intelligent flashcard system, audio for every article, and much more.

Everybody finds the study style that best suits them and the site is easily adaptable to individual or group learning. In essence, sign up to the website, ensure you try out all of the features and find out what works best for you! [Read more…]

Start a business in China: Interview with Wei Hsu of INS Global Consulting

November 2, 2015 by Furio Fu Leave a Comment

Today we interview Wei Hsu, Managing Director of INS Global Consulting, a Shanghai-based firm that helps foreign companies and individuals to develop their business in China, handle VISA procedures, payroll management, recruitment and much more.

In this interview, we’ll focus on what you need to know in order to start a business in China.

Wei, first of all, thank you for accepting this interview. If you want to operate in China, you need a legal entity. What is the difference between the most common types of legal entities in China, Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE), Joint-Venture (JV) and Representative Office (RO)?

A WFOE can be owned by foreign parties or offshore companies. It is an independent legal structure that offers a control of operations and a physical presence. You are the sole investor of the company so costs are not shared with your Chinese partner like in a JV. However, as an owner, you are able to choose a business strategy and are responsible for the processing of sales, the local logistics and management of staff.

There is also an important fact to take into consideration: it is not possible to set up a WFOE in every sector. The Foreign Investment Catalogue provided by the Chinese Government lists all restricted sectors as well as those for which investment is encouraged, prohibited or simply permitted.

A JV can exist in two forms: the Equity Joint Venture (EJV) where profits are proportionate to each partner‘s shares and the Cooperative Joint Venture (CJV) where profits are allocated according to the terms of the venture contract. A JV is usually considered with a local company having a complementary commercial and technical know-how. [Read more…]

Living in rural ethnic China: Interview with Gaetan of Traval Cathay

July 16, 2015 by Furio Fu Leave a Comment

In the streets of Lushi

Today we’ll discuss with Gaetan Green, the founder of Travel Cathay, a website dedicated to the off-the-beaten path places in China. If you’re interested on travel tips, history and traditions of Chinese remote areas, I advice you to check Gaetan’s website!

Gaetan, first of all thank for accepting to talk with me. When and why you ended up in China?

Thank you for having me on Sapore di Cina.

Well, I ended up in China during my first trip around the world in 2001. After traveling for three months through the country, I decided to come back for more. Once back home, I decided to study Chinese at university and then moved to Chongqing to deepen my knowledge of language in 2003. I lived in China on and off since then. [Read more…]

Shenzhen: The Book – Interview with the Author Ted Rule

March 16, 2015 by Furio Fu 4 Comments

In today’s interview I’ll discuss with Ted Rule, one of the authors of “Shenzhen: The Book“, a comprehensive guide for traveling and living in Shenzhen.

I read the book last week and I must say that Ted and Karen, who first arrived in Shenzhen in 1971, did a great job on both describing what you can do and see in Shenzhen and conveying the atmosphere of this metropolis that, only 40 years ago, was just a village.

Ted, first of all, thank you for accepting this interview. Your book starts with a couple of Chinese sayings. The one I liked the most is this: “If you love him, send him to Shenzhen. Heaven’s there. If you hate him, send him to Shenzhen. Hell’s there,” which remember me the saying “Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford” of Samuel Johnson. What is, in your opinion, that makes Shenzhen so different from the other Chinese cities?

In some ways Shenzhen is very different to other Chinese cities but it shares many of the characteristics that are changing every Chinese city. The main difference – essentially Shenzhen was built from scratch. Before 1979 there was nothing here. That’s true of most Chinese cities in a sense. Look at Beijing and Shanghai. Most of what you see there was built in the past 20 years. The difference is that in Shenzhen there’s no equivalent of the Bund or of the hutong. The “indigenous” population is tiny and its traditions are barely known. Everybody in Shenzhen is a recent immigrant and that colors everything that happens here. There’s nobody to tell you that “we tried that and it didn’t work”. [Read more…]