Joseph Barbarise has been in China for about two years. During this period, he has been teaching English, and supporting an economically challenged family. Let's follow our reporter Wu Jia to get to know Joseph's tryst with China.
Joseph Barbarise is a teacher at Henan Agricultural University in Central China. This year, he turns 55. Before he came to China, Joseph was a photographer. Chinese giant Yao Ming, US golfer Tiger Woods, the NBA 'Shark' O'Neal all have been his subjects. Though he was the envy of others because of his exciting occupation, Joseph gave it all up and came to China two years ago.
He says he loves adventure. Though he has visited many countries, he found he liked Asian culture the most. He has been to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. But he says none of these places were ideal for him, until one day, he chanced upon a Chinese website.
"For a year, I was on that website, every single person on that site was nice. Not one bad person in the group for a year. So I said 'Em~ It's going to be China!' I started to organize myself, my life. I've got a house, my work, a car. I had to sell everything. I had to rent my house. I had to do many things in order to organize my trip to come here. I said I don't want to stay here for a day, a week or two, or a month. I don't want to stay. I just want to photo the country."
Joseph stayed in China for four months in 2006, and didn't want to leave. He found a job as an English teacher in a college. He found the job very rewarding and his coworkers nice and friendly. He thought he should do something to give back to his Chinese friends. Christmas was just around the corner. Joseph planned a very special Christmas.
" These people have been so nice, everybody really really nice. It was near Christmas, and I said I wanna help a family, want to introduce them a little bit to Christmas. I knew I'm not able to help everybody here that is poor. "
Joseph's colleagues introduced him to such a family. They lived in a village named Chaohua. Together with this family, Joseph spent one of the most memorable Christmases in his life.
The two children in the family had lost their father and their mother was missing. The aged grandpa was the only breadwinner in the family. But he was too sick to bear the burden any longer. The grandpa was considering sending the children to an orphanage.
Joseph decided to spread warmth amid the family and the unfortunate children. That Christmas, he brought children piles of gifts: warm clothes, daily necessities, candies, and everything a kid could dream of.
"The boy held the gift. I was handing him a gift that was wrapped up nice. He just held it. And we explain to him in Chinese 'Open the gift!' He just looked at it and we said 'Open the paper!' He didn't know what to do! He never received a gift in his life, never! He didn't know how to open the package, so we used his hand and we opened the paper and then he started to urge to open them slowly. No smile. I was thinking after I went back, what in his life is missing? I know the family is not good. I know the mother is missing, the father is missing. And I can't do that. But I said there has to be something. "
Since then, Joseph began to visit the family every month, cared for them and buying them stationary and toys. He also took many beautiful pictures of them, showing reporters four photos that were taken on different occasions. In them, the children were wearing smiles ¨C presumably after a long time.
In the following year, Joseph financed the local school to update their teaching facilities. By this point, he was known by everyone in the village.
"Now, it's the whole village shows up, if they knew I'm coming. The aunts and uncles and cousins and neighbors, come from as far as they can walk. They all want to see what I'm going to do next time. So I was up there and the whole family shows up. "
Lu Xinying is one of Joseph's coworkers in the college.
"It has been barely two years since he came to our college. But he has won the hearts of students. He cares about others and has done a lot to help the locals. This is particularly praiseworthy when I remind myself he is a foreigner. I have learnt a lot from him."
Joseph didn't forget his original intention of coming to China. During the past two years, he visited many places and took many wonderful pictures.
"Have you seen the warriors in Xi'an, the weapons that these statues were holding? 40,000 in one area, the army was huge. I went to Jiuzhaigou, beautiful! Really beautiful! I've been to Guilin, Lijiang River over there. That was fantastic! Last winter, I was on a little raft, and I was flowing down the river, there was no tourists, there was no animals, no birds. It was quiet! And we flowed around the turn and the only noise I heard was me going 'Huh~' and click, click, click. It's beautiful! It got my breath take away with that picture right there."
Joseph says he is really glad that he had made the decision to come to China.
"I feel more at home here than I've ever felt in any place. I've been to eight countries. I feel more at home here. I love my country. I love America, I've been in war, I fought for my country and if I have to I'll die for my country, but I love China. I really like your country a lot. You have a lot of natural resources here. You've got a lot of minerals. You've got jade, copper, iron, coal. But the best natural resource you have is your people."
In 2007, the provincial government of Henan awarded Joseph the "Friendship Award of the Yellow River", the highest award to commend a foreigner's contribution to the province. Joseph says he will spread this love and encouragement to more people, and he will tell his friends in the U.S. his story about China.
CRIENGLISH.com claims the copyright of all material and information produced
originally by our staff. All rights reserved. Reproduction of text for non-commercial
purposes only is permitted provided that both the source and author are
acknowledged and a notifying email
is sent to us.
CRIENGLISH.com holds neither liability nor responsibility for materials
attributed to any other source. Such information is provided as reportage
and dissemination of information but does not necessarily reflect the opinion
of or endorsement by CRI.
What makes you happy? A recent survey shows that people feel the happiest when they reach their 60s and 70s. Is it true that we may ignore happiness when we spend all the time looking for it? [China Drive]
Transcend Yourself Transcendence is one of the core concepts of the Paralympics. In your life, have you ever transcended yourself to reach a goal? Have you achieved something that you normally wouldn't be able to do? [China Drive]
