When Louis Koen first came to China in 2002, it wasn't part of a grand plan. As a teenager, he and his sister followed their mother from South Africa to Yinchuan in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where she had taken a job teaching English. That move kick-started a journey of connection, discovery, and belonging that has lasted more than two decades. Today, Louis teaches English at Lanzhou University in Gansu Province and has built a life in northwest China with his Chinese wife and their two lovely daughters.