Footprints

​Thirty-nine year old Lin Yaping runs a family farm based in a suburb of the city of Suzhou in eastern China, growing strawberries, corn and other kinds of fruit and vegetables. Describing herself as a new generation of farmers, the university-educated woman has overcome one obstacle after another to shatter long-standing stereotypes about farming and farmers in China.

More than a decade ago, Chen Jianxing quit his job as a diplomat. With a childhood dream of becoming friends with lions and cheetahs, he has since then chosen to devote himself to wildlife protection and ecosystem conservation in Africa. As the first Tanzania National Parks China Representative, Chen Jianxing hopes to challenge the stereotype many people in the West hold against China so that the world can understand China better through its efforts to protect the ecological environment.

More than a decade ago Chen Jianxing quit his job as a diplomat. Since then, he has devoted himself to wildlife protection and ecosystem conservation in Africa. For his life journey as the “green hills of Africa”, and for more stories on average but incredible Chinese people, please search for “Footprints” on your favorite podcast platforms.

​Hilda Mandigo is a Zimbabwean media professional and TV show host in the Chinese capital Beijing. Her work entails bridging the gaps in familiarity between China and her country, along with others in Africa. Lighthearted and charismatic, Hilda’s story inspires optimism, humor and resilience to those looking to take on new challenges in life, no matter how daunting they may be.

​Dr. Johnny Ng Kit-chong is a self-made entrepreneur and a national political advisor based in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Having integrated his career path with the development of the country in the past 20 years, he has been actively encouraging Hong Kong youths to closely combine their personal growth with the development of the motherland. He also expresses much hope in building Hong Kong as a “cultural passport” of China in the future.

Andrew Yao Cho-fai, originally from Hong Kong, is a successful businessman based on the Chinese mainland and an avid promoter of youth exchanges between the two sides. Twenty-five years on since the return of Hong Kong to China, Yao says the intense entrepreneurship innate to Hong Kong culture promises the city will continue to succeed in the years to come.

​Twenty-eight year old Yang Jinlong is a professional car painter from eastern China’s Zhejiang Province. In August 2015, the young man made a breakthrough for the country at the WorldSkills Competition in Brazil by winning China’s first gold medal in car painting. How did he achieve this and what has he been doing since becoming a world-class car painter? Join us to find out.

​Chen Jia, 43 years old, is a train technician whose responsibility is to ensure the safety of cross-border railway transportation between Russia and China. An awkward experience in the early stage of her career motivated her to challenge herself to become a sharp-eye train inspector and eventually the head of an all-female train inspecting team.

Guo Yunbo, previously a Peking University-educated scientific researcher, has been devoting himself to the cultivation of a new generation of outstanding technicians at a vocational school in central China’s Henan Province since 2016. As almost 12 million youngsters get ready to take Gaokao—the annual national college entrance examination this week, the educator calls upon them and their parents to rethink the purpose of education and consider vocational training as an alternative path.

​Li Wenjie, a Beijing-based researcher of comparative literature, discovered her interest in Denmark’s literature giant Hans Christian Andersen back in the 2010s. Since then, she has been dedicating herself to the research and promotion of children’s literature in China while tracing how Andersen’s works were introduced to the country.