【我的中国故事】在阳朔的4年

The author does tai chi in Yangshuo in undated photo. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn/

My whole life I've been interested in martial arts. I studied judo as a child, then karate. But itwas only when I moved to another city in Belgium where there was a kungfu club, that I reallyenjoyed it and fully understood why they call it an art. It is fighting and defending yourself, butit's also understanding your body more, making it stronger and healthier. Kungfu is a wholephilosophy and is a big part of Chinese culture. I have always watched kungfu movies (whodoesn't know Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jet Li?), because I loved their movements. When Istarted to practice kungfu, I realized how difficult it was and a simple kick or punch demandedmonths of practice. But I loved it! A whole new world was opening to me.

After I practiced 4 years of kungfu in Belgium, I wanted to go to the country where this martialart originated from. I went to China with a travel organization. It was a trip that included somekungfu and taichi lessons. It was an international group, so there were people from all over theworld. We went from Hong Kong to Guilin, Yangshuo, Xi'an, Luoyang and Shaolin and finallyBeijing. We did 2 kungfu lessons in Yangshuo with the brothers Gao, who had a family stylecalled BuDiZhen. We did 1 taichi lesson in Xi'an and 2 more kungfu lessons in Shaolin. I wasimpressed by Yangshuo and the Gao brothers. Yangshuo is a beautiful little town in the middleof karst mountains and near the Li river. The Gao brothers' family style was close to the style Iwas practicing in Belgium. I could only dream of my next trip to China.

The next year, my dream became true: I went to China again, together with some friends of mykungfu club. We stayed 1 month in Yangshuo, just to practice kungfu. I didn't do anything of thetouristic attractions that Yangshuo has (and Yangshuo has much to offer), but did more than 4hours of kungfu every day, the rest of the time, I rested or spent in the bar. I met a lot ofpeople, foreigners, that stayed in Yangshuo for a long time, several months to several yearsand they all told me that it's easy to live here as a foreigner.

Back in Belgium, the only thing I could think about was: what's the fastest way to go back toYangshuo and live there for a longer period? I was working in a bank and in Belgium you havethe possibility to take a sabbatical year. After that, you can just return to your job again. Afterall the formalities, I returned back to Yangshuo at the end of that year. That was in december2008.

It felt like living in a dream: although it was really cold at that time in Yangshuo, I didn't care. Ipracticed kungfu for more than 6 hours a day, went to the bar to keep warm (there is no properheating, so in winter we have to wear more than 5 layers of clothes and keep next to a smallelectric heater or some heated coals to stay warm). After 3 months of intense training, I decidedto teach English as well. Yangshuo has a lot of English schools where Chinese adults want toimprove their English. I made a lot of friends from all different countries and we had a lot offun!! I decided not to go back to Belgium. After my sabbatical, I just sent an email to my formeremployer that I stayed in China and that was it. Life here was too relaxing and too beautiful togive it up.

In the summer of 2010, CCTV4 came here to film for a travel program and they wanted to followa foreigner for 1 day to see the life of a foreigner in Yangshuo. They chose me and filmed mewhile practicing kungfu and asked me about my life here.

In autumn of that same year, my life changed for the better. I was still teaching English and 1day I went to school and everyone was telling me that there was a taichi master in the school,who wanted to learn English. He had won a lot of gold medals already and was teachingChinese, but he wanted to learn English to teach foreigners as well. His name is Wu YuPingand he was a student in my class. I immediately became his tai chi student as well. We becamegood friends, went to the bar together, but even though we went out till 3am, we got up at 6amagain to practice tai chi in the park. I loved it, practicing in the park that early has somethingmagical. After a few weeks, we couldn't hide our feelings anymore: we were in love with eachother. There was only 1 problem: Students and teachers couldn't have a relationship with eachother, so we had to keep it a secret. But Yangshuo is such a small town, so people knew veryquickly that something was going on. I didn't want to get fired, so I quit my job and wentteaching in another school. Then, we didn't have to hide anything anymore and could tell allour friends. With Ping, my life in China has finally more meaning and is full. He can teach me somuch about the rich culture of this country and make me understand more of it.

We are more than 2 years later and our relationship is still strong. We already live together formore than 1 year. Ping has his own tai chi school here in Yangshuo and is teaching foreigners,his dream, and I have a coffeeshop and chocolateshop now. I am selling Belgian chocolate andbeer, together with good coffee and breakfast. We keep on practicing tai chi together, althoughnot at 6am anymore.

I must say that I never experienced a culture shock here. My life is going really well and yes, Ican get annoyed by Chinese people that stare at me or take pictures, but I try not to think toomuch of it. I sometimes get annoyed by people's behavior in my country as well. My life is inChina. Every 2 years I go back to Belgium to visit my family and I encounter a bigger cultureshock there, because I stepped out of that life and I am not familiar anymore with the stressy,rushing lifestyle there.

我整整一生都处于对武术的痴迷之中。当我还是个孩子的时候就学习了柔道，之后学了空手道。但是当我搬到比利时另外一个有功夫俱乐部的城市时，我才真正体会到了武术的魅力，同时也完全理解了为什么人们称它为一种艺术。它是一种战斗同时也是在进行一种自我防卫，这其实也达到了让你更加了解自己的身体，从而使它变得更加强壮和健康的目的。功夫是一门完整的哲学，而且是中国文化的重要组成部分。我一直在看功夫片

在比利时练习了四年功夫之后，我想去武术的发源地看看。我跟随一个旅游社来到了中国。这次的旅行包含有一些功夫和太极的课程。这是一个国际团，所以这里有来自世界各地的人。我们从香港出发去了桂林，阳朔，西安，洛阳，还去了少林寺，最后一站我们来到了北京。我在阳朔一个号称具有“步地真”家传功夫的高氏兄弟那里报了两个功夫班。我们在西安上了一节太极课，还在少林寺上了两节功夫课。我被阳朔和高氏兄弟深深地吸引了。阳朔是一个座落在丽江之畔、喀斯特山体中间的美丽小镇。高氏兄弟的家传功夫和我在比利时练习的形式非常的接近。我只能梦想着下一次来中国的旅行了。

第二年，我的梦想成真了：我再一次来到了中国，这次是和我在功夫俱乐部的几个朋友一起来的。我们在阳朔停留了一个月仅仅是为了练习功夫。我并没有逛阳朔的旅游景点

回到比利时之后，我能够想到的唯一一件事情就是：回到阳朔并且能在那里生活更长一段时间最快的方法是什么？我当时在一家银行工作，在比利时你是有休年假的机会的，而且假期过后你还可以再一次回到自己的工作岗位上来。所有的正式手续都办好之后，我就在那年的年底回到了阳朔。那是在2008年的12月份。

那感觉就好像是生活在梦境之中：虽然那个时候的阳朔非常的寒冷，我却一点都不在乎。我每天练习超过6小时的太极，我去酒吧里面取暖

2010年的夏天，

中央电视台第四频道的工作人员来到这里拍摄一个旅游节目的电影，他们想要花费一天的时间来跟随一个外国人，看看外国人在阳朔的生活是什么样的。他们选择了我，对我练习太极的情景进行了短暂的拍摄之后他们还问了我一些在这里的生活问题。

同一年的秋天，我的生活开始向更好的方向发展。我仍旧在教英语，但突然有一天我来到学校之后，所有的人都在告诉我学校里有一个太极界的大师想要学习英语。他已经赢得了很多的金牌，现在正在教汉语，但是他也想要学习英语以便教授更多的外国人汉语。他的名字叫做吴语平

在一起两年之后我们的关系依然很亲密。我们已经同居一年多了。平在阳朔有他自己的太极学校，他可以教外国人知识，还有他的梦想，而我现在也有了一家咖啡馆和一家巧克力店。我出售比利时的巧克力和啤酒，同时还提供优质的咖啡和早餐。我们仍旧坚持一起练习太极，虽然已经不是在早上6点了。

我必须说在这里我从来没有体验过文化冲突。我的生活进行得非常顺利，当然，当中国人盯着我看或者是要同我合影的时候我也会变得很气恼，但是我尽量不去想得太多。我有的时候也会因为自己国家人的行为感到气恼。我的生活是在中国的。我每两年回一次比利时去看望我的家人，在那里我遇到了更大的文化冲突，因为我早已走出了那种生活，而且我对那里紧张匆忙的生活方式一点也不熟悉了。