The exclusive interview with Jin Yuxi was at her home on Beijing West Road, Shanghai. After stepping out of the elevator, there is her iconic portrait of a child with a flower head on the wall in the foyer, and a peony pattern made of small red bricks on the floor, which symboliz

2024-11-30 11:05:04 entertainment 6379℃

’s exclusive interview with Jin Yuxi was at her home on Beijing West Road, Shanghai. After stepping out of the elevator, there is her iconic portrait of a child with a flower head on the wall in the foyer, and a peony pattern made of small red bricks on the floor, which symbolizes prosperity and prosperity.

Still wearing the same red coat, Jin Yuxi had bright eyes and red lips, a smile, and sat down in the living room with a cup of ginger tea. Looking back on the history of exchanges between China and the United States, this 78-year-old Chinese-American has a special place - in 1977, she produced the TV program "Looking East" to introduce China to American society; in 1986, she produced the TV program "Around the World", which was broadcast on CCTV Introducing the world to Chinese audiences; founded the beauty brand "Yue Sai" in 1992, inspiring a generation of Chinese women; now serves as the co-chairman of the China Institute in America.

"I hope to do my best to pass on Chinese culture to the United States in a gentle way." After the exclusive interview, Jin Yuxi said at the "Overseas Chinese Community Reception Hall" co-organized by the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Federation and Liberation Daily. People close to her told reporters that Jin Yuxi is accustomed to eating with chopsticks and loves to eat hairy crabs, steamed dumplings, sweet and sour pork ribs, etc. Of course, if you observe her logical thinking, language habits and way of treating others, the Western style is still very obvious.

"She left Guangxi for Hong Kong at the age of 4, went to the United States to study at the age of 16, and has been living in the United States since then. She only started to learn to speak Mandarin at the age of 37. Where did her feelings for China come from?" The reporter was very curious. "Love is mutual." People around her said, "Yu Sai was infected by the enthusiasm of the Chinese people, and she also received care and love. In her heart, she believed that she was Chinese and her roots were here." In the exclusive interview with

, we talked about Sino-US non-governmental exchanges under the influence of politics. Jin Yuxi bluntly said that because of her reputation and status, she has never been discriminated against or harmed in the United States. "Being the chairman of (United Chinese American Associations) is 100% not for myself, otherwise why would I have to work so hard?" she said. I admit that it is much more difficult to engage in Sino-US exchanges than in the past, and the channels are much fewer than in the past, but we still have to find ways to introduce China to American society. Therefore, as a successful media person in the past, now she has also joined the majority of younger generations in the short video track.

I care about how many foreigners watch my show

Liberation Daily·Shangguan News: How did decide to start making short videos?

Jin Yuxi: The traditional TV programs I used to do were broadcast for one hour at a time, and the content could be divided into roughly 15 units (parts). Nowadays, the whole world doesn’t watch much TV, and self-media is very active. I think we can try to broadcast the 15 units of an episode separately.

In the current international environment, it is not easy to introduce China in the United States. There is a saying in the United States called "panda hug (a naive and contagious panda hug)". We want to introduce China through a gentle vehicle like food. We invited 6 Americans who are not familiar with China, including Chinese who have not been to China for many years, to taste Chinese food and experience the local culture.

There are 45,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, and only one is rated as Michelin restaurant. There are more than ten Korean restaurants and more than 30 Japanese restaurants. Is this right? There is something wrong. Is it time to introduce more Chinese food to Americans?

’s short video this season is called “One World”. It wants to tell the audience that we all live on the same planet and have dreams, ambitions and challenges. There is no difference between Chinese and foreigners. Our first stop for filming was Hawaii, USA, and then we went to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing. I will go to other Chinese cities in the future.

Liberation Daily·Shangguan News: How do foreigners, especially Americans, want to watch these videos?

Jin Yuxi: Because I am an American (so I understand Americans’ preferences). I don't care how many Chinese people watch my show, I care about how many foreigners watch my show, because the ultimate goal is to introduce Chinese culture to them. Two weeks ago, our first two episodes were broadcast online, and each episode received 680,000 views.

During the 10-day shoot in China, Shanghai went to the Bund and Shanghai Center; Hangzhou went to the West Lake and the Bronze Zhu Bingren Store; and Beijing went to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and tasted palace delicacies. Our editing team comes from overseas, and there are also Chinese people with overseas backgrounds. The cost of shooting a city is 450,000 yuan, not including post-production editing and release. These will be more expensive and I hope to get sponsorship.

Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News: You once mentioned that completely traditional Chinese culture does not excite you. Will this perspective be reflected in the show?

Jin Yuxi: Many foreigners only know that China is a very old country, but they don’t know that China has many new things - Chinese people’s lives are much better than in the past, and China has great modern lifestyle, modern culture and creative ability. . For example, we have great clothing designers and fashion brands, which should be told to foreigners.

I am a Libra. When I see someone speaking so poorly of China in the United States, I feel it is very unfair and I don’t want to hear such words. There are not many, or even very few, ways to introduce China in the United States. We are using social media to introduce Chinese culture.

Chinese people are willing to accept new things

Jiefang Daily · Shangguan News: The current situation of domestic and foreign communication is very different from that before you. In the past, you mostly revealed the secrets of the other country to Eastern and Western societies.

Yue-Sai Jin: When I started working on "Looking East" in 1977, China was still unknown in the United States, and the whole of Asia was like a "black hole." The famous journalist Mike Wallace told me at the time that no one in the United States would like to watch programs about Asia, saying that I was wasting my time. I laughed it off. I knew he was wrong. He didn’t know that many Americans were already interested in Asia but had no access to information about Asia.

During the broadcast of the program, I noticed that if the program was about Chinese food or traditional culture, the phone in our studio would ring non-stop, which shows that Americans are beginning to be interested in China. The program ran until 1989 and was broadcast on more than 700 television stations across the United States.

Liberation Daily·Shangguan News: In 1984, you were invited by CCTV to produce "Around the World", which was the first program to introduce the world to Chinese audiences.

Jin Yuxi: The biggest problem at that time was that I could only speak English and Cantonese, but not a word of Mandarin. Through self-study, I studied from 6 pm to 9 pm every day from Monday to Friday, and from 9 am to 9 pm on weekends. I persisted like this for two and a half years. I recorded the 30-second Mandarin opening of the first episode in 1986 for 3 hours.

My father was very worried at the time and asked me where the money to produce the show would come from. We also need to sponsor advertising for the show. We hope to attract foreign companies that are already in China or want to do business in China. The first person willing to sponsor the show was the American Maxwell Coffee Company (later renamed Maxwell Coffee). I had concerns at the time - would coffee be popular in a tea-drinking country? As a result, three months after the advertisement was aired, the company's coffee sales were booming.

The second company that was willing to sponsor the program was Procter & Gamble (pg) of the United States, but the Chinese side did not agree at first. They discovered that g stood for gamble and thought it was a gambling company. I had to explain that Gamble is the name of the founder of the company.

These interesting experiences tell me that China is determined to reform and open up, and the face of China will definitely change. At the same time, Chinese people are very willing to accept new things.

Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News: So you transitioned from a media person to an entrepreneur in the early 1990s. At that time, the Chinese cosmetics market was completely blank.

Jin Yuxi: At that time, it was unprecedented for Chinese women to wear lipstick. But I found that Chinese women are willing to change, and cosmetics can give a person the power to become beautiful.

In 1992, "Yue Sai" brand cosmetics came out in Shanghai, and the first counter was in the First Department Store on Nanjing East Road. I also trained China’s first batch of professional managers in the cosmetics industry and did a lot of popular education on beauty.So, Chinese women should really thank me for using cosmetics today (laughs). In 2004, "Yue Sai" was merged into the L'Oréal Group. I felt that my "first-of-its-kind" was enough, and I would have more energy to do charity work in the future.

If we don’t work hard to do this, then who should do it?

Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News: This includes serving as the co-chairman of the China-American Association since 2016.

Yuxi Jin: The China-American Association was founded in 1926. It is a non-governmental cultural organization co-founded by Mr. Hu Shi, Mr. Guo Bingwen and American philosopher Dewey. It introduces Chinese culture and civilization to American society and enhances the mutual understanding between the two peoples. understand each other. The Association is located at 100 Washington Street in Manhattan, New York. It is a very beautiful art exhibition hall. We now not only introduce traditional culture to American society, but also introduce contemporary culture, and invite Chinese designers, artists, musicians, photographers, etc. to communicate and perform here.

After I became chairman, the first thing I did was to build a cooking center. If you know how the French in America promote French food, you can understand why I must do this. It's a good way to impress people with delicious food. We want to make use of this place. The people who come to our association are all high-level local people.

Every penny of our association is raised. I went to Qingdao to find Haier Company and told me that we needed US$1 million to build a Chinese kitchen, and the other party agreed. It took us six years to build the kitchen, and now the cooking center has 20 round countertops and can seat 200 people at a time. If Shanghai comes to New York to hold events in the future, you are welcome to use this venue to "get it done in one stop".

Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News: In recent years, has it been difficult to build a bridge for cultural exchanges between China and the United States?

Jin Yuxi: Because of my reputation and status, I have not been discriminated against or harmed in the United States. However, it is really difficult for the Chinese American community to be "sandwiched in the middle". We must spend money and efforts to tell American society the truth. We previously held the "Courageous Chinese Women" exhibition in Silicon Valley, USA, to tell the locals about the contributions we have made. Some people in the United States pretend not to know (Chinese contribution), and some people really don’t know (Chinese contribution).

Due to political factors, there is a lot of turmoil between China and the United States. But I think that over the past 100 years, the Chinese American Association has persisted in spreading Chinese culture and promoting friendly exchanges between China and the United States. The storms it faced in the past would have been greater (than now). We should persist in doing this, and now many locals (non-Chinese) participate in our association’s activities. For me, it is easy to make money, but it is difficult to maintain good Sino-US relations, but I will continue to do it.

Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News: What is your motivation for doing these things?

Jin Yuxi: I left mainland China when I was 4 years old, and went to the United States from Hong Kong to study at the age of 16. I know nothing about Chinese culture. But ever since I came into contact with China through TV programs, I have fallen more and more in love with our culture. Later, I was fortunate to participate in China's reform and opening up and witnessed China's development and growth through hard work and sacrifice.