A SWAHILI SPRING
Fadhhili Mpunji, a radio producer from Tanzania, says he is ‘stuck’ in Beijing for more than a decade — and is loving it. Liu Xiangrui reports
China always made Fadhhili Mpunji curious. The 42-year-old journalist from Tanzania was familiar with Chinese during his childhood: They stayed in his hometown to help operate a railway built by a Chinese company in the late 1970s.
Besides, he was intrigued by kung fu movies and watched Chinese gymnasts at the Olympic Games on TV. He briefly studied Chinese history and politics in college.
Mpunji worked for the Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation before coming to China in 2003 as part of a cooperation program between his former employer and China Radio International. He has been working as a producer for CRI’s Swahili service since. He writes reports and records programs that introduce China to African listeners.
Mpunji has paid close attention to the deepening of ties between China and Africa. The cooperation and trade between the two sides have benefited African people’s lives, Mpunji says.
When he got his first cellphone in 1994, he was among some 3,000 people in his country to own such a gadget. Now nearly half of its population of 50 million are using cellphones, lots of which are imported from China.
In 2013, Mpunji broadcast programs on President Xi Jinping’s visit to Tanzania, among his earliest state visits.
“People in Africa felt they were respected. Because usually Africa is on the sidelines when leaders choose their first visits,” Mpunji says, adding that local people were impressed when Xi pledged a new type of partnership and promised to improve people’s lives instead.
But Mpunji says even though cooperation between the governments has been close, there is still a long way to go before ordinary people from both countries understand each other better.
Some people from Africa still have an image of China of the 1960s, he says. “They think China must be very poor, while some others think all Chinese people are rich.”
Mpunji has been involved in efforts to enhance mutual understanding.
He helped to dub the Chinese TV series, A Beautiful Daughter-inLaw Era, into Swahili a few years ago. As the first Chinese TV series focusing on ordinary Chinese people’ s lives, it was aired on local channels and became widely popular.
Even President Xi mentioned its popularity in Tanzania during his visit.
In addition to seeing China’s rapid development during his stay, Mpunji has witnessed many major events like China fighting the SARS epidemic in 2003, Beijing hosting the Olympics in 2008, Shanghai hosting the Expo in 2010 and China launching its Shenzhou manned spaceships from 2003 onward.
“I’m lucky to have been one of the few foreigners to witness China’s progress closely,” says Mpunji.
Mpunji’s work has allowed him to travel to more than half of the provinces in China, from the developed coastal areas to remote regions, and he has been impressed by the local hospitality.
“Although Chinese people are generally reserved, it’s easy to make friends with them after talking for a few minutes,” says Mpunji.
After staying in China for more than a decade, he has developed a taste for Chinese food. He can easily name a few of his favorite dishes in Chinese.
In the early days, language was the greatest challenge for him. The worst experience, he says, was on the first day he arrived.
He spent a long time wandering the streets trying to find a restaurant for dinner. He tried to ask many passers-by but failed to communicate effectively.
He then ended up drinking beer on an empty stomach after being invited by a Western stranger.
“So one of the first Chinese sentences I learned is ‘ting bu dong’, meaning ‘I don’t understand,’” says Mpunji, who started to slowly make foreign friends and later some Chinese friends who could speak English.
“Things have changed greatly over the years. It’s common to find people who can communicate in English in the streets today.”
He says even some taxi drivers can speak English.
Mpunji calls his twin sons, who are studying in Chinese schools and use Chinese as their first language, “Beijing kids”.
“They sometimes try to teach me Chinese and Chinese culture,” Mpunji says, smiling.
Mpunji jokes that after working for more than 10 years here, he’s “stuck” in the Chinese capital and has no plans of leaving China.
“Whether I stay in China or go back to my home country, I really want to play a bigger role in the relations between China and Tanzania, and maybe other African countries,” he says.
Mpunji believes his stay in China has been a valuable experience.
“I learned how to interact with people whose culture is so different from mine, and I learned the spirit of hard work from the Chinese people,” he says. Contact the writer at liuxiangrui@chinadaily.com.cn
I’m lucky to have been one of the few foreigners to witness China’s progress closely.” Fadhhili Mpunji, producer at China Radio International