Name： Eric AbrahamsenChinese Name： Tao JianNationality： AmericanOccupation： Self-employedTime in China： 5 yearsEric Abrahamsen is a handsome youngAmerican who has chosen a very Chinese Internetalias “Suo Zhuzi”— a common name meaning“Locking Post”。 To everyone’s surprise， hewas elected to be a moderator for a well-knownChinese literary forum called “Reading Life”。
He is currently occupied with compiling andtranslating 15 contemporary Chinese short storiesfor a collection to be published by Penguin，a famous British publishing house.
At a little over six feet five， Eric literally towers over mostChinese when walking down the streets of Beijing or attending parties，like a camel standing out among a flock of sheep. Given his height，many Chinese people consider it a pity that Eric didn’t play for theNBA. Having lived in China for just five years， his mastery of the languageis extraordinarily admirable. He possesses a huge vocabulary，pure pronunciation， and an intimate knowledge of the latest lingo andexpressions. Many people believe that his work as a free-lancer provideshim with a great opportunity to exploit his linguistic skills. Withhis mastery of English and Mandarin， it would be another pity andwaste of talent if he were not involved in cultural exchange.
When complimented on his mastery of the Chinese language andhis humor， Eric reacts modestly， sometimes even blushing a bit. Eric’s charisma and gregarious nature have made him popular throughoutBeijing， especially within cultural circles. As a result， Eric always hasa helping hand whenever he finds himself in need.
Eric recently found online fame with a six-month stint as a moderatoron the “Reading Life” online forum. He has generated mildfanfare among Chinese online members excited to see an exotic “mottledbamboo” on the forum. The trend these days among the Chineseis to replace online words with their homophones. As you might haveguessed， the Chinese pronunciation for mottled bamboo is the same asthe Chinese pronunciation for moderator. Note that the level of “mottledbamboo” is not just given to anybody. Only a person who has attainedthe highest acknowledged writing level is allowed to serve as amoderator， and given the power to edit and delete other people’s posts.
Who could have imagined that a person whose mother tongue was notChinese could occupy this position of “pointing to the mountains andrivers and setting people afire with his words”？ Just imagine how higha Chinese level he has achieved！ This of course has aroused a greatinterest among the news media. Why， even when we arrived at Eric’shome to conduct an interview we found a group of cameramen from aTV station busy shooting a program with Eric.
A Foreign Student at the Central University for NationalitiesStill basking in the glow of newly wedded bliss， the cheerful-temperedEric granted whatever was requested. The cameramen recordedhis daily work as a free-lancer and even asked him to bake bread， grindcoffee beans， and do other household chores in front of the camera toshow their audience the graceful demeanor of an aproned husband.
When not satisfied with the shot， the TV crew would require him torepeat the shot over and over again. It reached the point that even thecameramen felt it was asking a little too much of Eric. However， Erickept assuring them that it was okay， saying “not a problem” in Chinese.
No one present could conceal their smiles as Eric said this in atypical Beijing accent， with a heavily-emphasized final “r” sound thateven many Chinese southerners cannot pronounce well. His tone andmanner were very much that of a young guy from Beijing’s backstreets— full of honesty， generosity and tolerance.
Despite being tormented by the TV crew， Eric showed no trace offatigue as he sat down for his interview with us. The interview beganwith the topic of how he ended up coming to China.
Eric’s ancestors immigrated to the United States from NorthernEurope about a hundred years ago. Besides his height， the only realremnant of his Norwegian heritage is his name. Starting on the subjectof his passion for China， Eric said， “I actually first visited China whenI was 10 years old on a trip with my family. We entered China viaHong Kong， passed through Guangzhou and arrived in Beijing. Themagnificence of Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City left mein … well， awe. Yes， I was in great awe. Of course I also climbed theGreat Wall. However， I didn’t feel any sense of pride of being ‘a trueman who sets foot on the Great Wall’。 I was probably just too young tounderstand. At the University of Washington， Eric majored in internationalrelations. When selecting a country for the main focus of his study， hewrote down China without a second thought. Was it because of the impressionof his Beijing trip as a ten year-old child? Perhaps the allureof an ancient oriental culture? Eric shook his head at these suggestionsand responded， “I can’t really say. I didn’t really have a reason behindmy choice.” It turned out that Eric’s unintentional choice would havea profound influence on his life journey， leading him to his current careersuccess and even helping him tie the knot with a Chinese girl.
One of the requirements of the international relations programat the University of Washington is that students must take two yearsof language courses related to the country of their focus. Rather thanstudy Chinese in the America， Eric found that he could meet this requirementby enrolling as an exchange student at China’s Central Universityfor Nationalities， which had a study-abroad program with hisuniversity. Before his departure， he concentrated his efforts on Chinesefor three straight months. He also asked his teacher to pick out a Chinesename which was “Tao Jianyou”。 Excitedly， he arrived in Beijing.
