West meets East: An American girl’s bond with China

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All of a sudden, the Chinese social media have fallen in love with an American teenage girl, after listening to her reciting of an ancient Chinese poem.

In the sensational online video, then 9-year-old Happy Rogers, daughter of US investor Jim Rogers, recited a poem written by a Chinese poet of the Song Dynasty. Her pronunciation and tones are so accurate that many Chinese Weibo goers exclaimed that “she speaks better in Chinese than I do!”

However, Happy Rogers does not speak such fluent Chinese by accident. It was the outcome of her father’s insightful decision of moving the family to Singapore in 2007. Jim Rogers, a veteran investor of the Wall Street and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, has claimed in several interviews that China is “where the future is.”

Happy Rogers smiles while attending CGTN's special program "Because of China." /CGTN Photo

“Buy low, sell high. Be curious and be skeptical. And make sure that your children and your grandchildren are fluent in Mandarin,” is Rogers’ advice to the investors during an interview back in 2011. It has been proven that he was right.

Meet “The Blonde Chinese” - Happy Rogers

Her online nickname “The Blonde Chinese” is probably the best definition of the close bond between Happy Rogers and China. Hailing Chinese as her “second mother tongue,” she never hesitates in expressing her ardent love for the language and the country.

“Without Chinese, I wouldn’t be the person I was today. I wouldn’t be perhaps as special as I was, I wouldn’t be as open-minded, and [I wouldn’t] know so much about the world, such exposure to the world if not for Chinese and for China,” said Happy Rogers in an interview with CGTN Digital Media.

After spending a whole day filming for CGTN’s special program “Because of China” and having several interviews, the 14-year-old girl was still energetic and exciting while talking about China and its language.

“I love being on stage; I love speaking Mandarin and I love making new friends,” said Happy, “I had a lot of fun.”

Happy has been to quite a number Chinese cities. From the capital city of Beijing and eastern metropolis Shanghai to provincial capitals Nanjing and Chengdu, as well as cities well known for their traditional cultures, such as Suzhou and Qufu, she could reel off a string of Chinese cities without any hesitation.

Happy Rogers recites a Chinese poem. /CGTN Photo

While asked to describe China in three words, Happy’s choices are “powerful, inspiring and very strong.”

“Powerful because it’s being on the rise. It is at the peak; it is up there. It’s become one of the No. 1 countries in the world. Inspiring because of the Chinese people: Everywhere I go in China, I’m so inspired by the people so hard working, the dumplings, the Qi Pao, the history, everything about China. Strong because every person in China has worked so hard to make China what it is today,” Happy explained.

Even reading is always her first choice of spending a day, like many girls of her age, she also likes watching TV dramas and movies and is determined to become an actress after growing up.

“I am from the US, but I could speak Chinese, which might make me the special one,” said Happy, “But who knows, I’m only 14 years old, I might change my mind.”

Look Eastwards becomes a new trend

Chinese President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan stand in Forbidden City with visiting US President Donald Trump and wife Melania Trump. /Xinhua Photo

Happy Rogers is not the only child from the west who speaks fluent Chinese. Only days before her video going viral online, US President Donald Trump’s granddaughter Arabella Kushner also became a hit on China’s Twitter-like social media Sina Weibo.

During his first state visit to China, the US President shared a video of his granddaughter's performance in Chinese with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The latter scored the 6-year-old an A+ for her progress in the language.

According to the British media, Prince George of the UK will also start to learn Chinese later in his school years. Business Insider observed that teaching their children Chinese has already become a new trend in the wealthy families, from billionaires, statesmen to royals.

Donald Trump's grandchildren sung a Chinese folk song to welcome President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan. /PA Photo

China is now the world’s second-largest economy. Earlier this year, the country set its economic growth targets for 2017 at around 6.5 percent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and New York-based investment bank Morgan Stanley have respectively revised their forecast on China’s GDP growth to 6.8 percent in October and November.

The World Bank was cited by a Business Insider report in June that China will contribute about 35.2 percent of the global GDP growth in the coming two years. For the elites in the west, when that day comes, they know that the language could afford their descendants the access to China.

Being an insightful businessperson and one of the world’s leading contrarian investors, Jim Rogers is among the first bunch of people who preferred to look eastwards. One of his famous thesis is “the 19th century was the century of the UK, the 20th century was the century of the US, and the 21st century is the century of China.”

US investor Jim Rogers attending the China Hi-Tech Forum 2011 in Shenzhen, Guangdong. /VCG Photo

While asked about his best investment years ago, Rogers said, it was no doubt his two daughters learning to speak Chinese.

At the age of 14, Happy is still immersed in the excitement talking about her new year’s resolution, her love of the Oriental country, and her “Chinese dream” in the not-far-away future.

“My Chinese is not good enough. I want to learn and practice more, and I want to know more about the Chinese culture and history in the coming new year,” she said.

By commanding both languages and cultural background, it is not hard to imagine that Happy would for sure find a bigger stage and a brighter future in China.

The special program "Because of China" of CGTN's "The Point with LIU Xin" will be aired on December 27-29. Stay tuned to CGTN, or download the application to watch the show.

Videos edited by Lin Zihan, Zhu Danni.