Evan Kail is an American pawn shop owner who made a name in China by donating a photo album documenting Japanese war crimes in the country. He is visiting China after being invited to this year's Spring Festival Gala. CGTN's You Yang caught up with him to get his expectations about the upcoming show.
YOU YANG CGTN Reporter "What's your understanding of the Spring Festival?"
EVAN KAIL American Pawn Shop Owner "Well it's the largest travel in the world and all that for China or I mean for the whole world, all the amount of people traveling all over and you know, it's a start of a new year and it's a really big deal to Chinese people and I'm really privileged and honored to be here and to be part of it."
YOU YANG CGTN Reporter "You have visited the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Nanjing, what's your impression about this trip?"
EVAN KAIL American Pawn Shop Owner "Well I've also been to Harbin. I been Hangzhou and I was just in Wuhan this past week. I've enjoyed every city I've gone to. Harbin was very cold. I'm from a cold place, so it certainly wasn't too cold for me. Hangzhou is breathtaking and beautiful. Beijing there's obviously lots of history on display here."
YOU YANG CGTN Reporter "Why do you think to understand each other's history, and culture is important for China and the United States to enhance people-to-people connections?"
EVAN KAIL American Pawn Shop Owner "Well, right now our countries are at a bit of an impasse and it does not seem to be getting better. In fact I would go to say that the bureaucrats in Washington are really neglecting and stopping listening. And I've accidentally walked into a moment here where the Chinese people seem to adore me. And there's a lot of positivities here in America has never really captured the Chinese imagination and the love of the people with I have. By total accident through doing the right thing, so I'm really hoping to capitalize on that and forge a bridge of communication between our cultures because the fact is if we got into a conflict, it would be disastrous for the whole world. And right now, so what we're seeing with this TikTok ban and that's happening and people jumping on a Little Red Book, is really a window being opened up into China by America, where by total accident, they're now seeing how Chinese people live and I've seen a ton of videos of people that have just downloaded this app and they're saying, well the media lied to us that we thought it was over there they, they live a life very much like ours and this communication, you're seeing a total accident, you know, again, I'm a total accident and I'm building a bridge of communication, it's really important for the sake of peace between our nations and for the sake of global peace. So I'm doing all that I can and you know, China become a second home for me, I'm going to be going back to the United States after the New Year, but then I'll be coming right back in March."