CRI听力: The Happiness of a Cross-cultural Family

Up next, we'll be meeting another cross-cultural family that lives here in Beijing. The father, Cheng Xiaoyang, is Chinese, but the mother, Phukham Ongvichit, is from Laos. The couple and their two lovely daughters now live happily in Beijing after meeting and falling for each other in Laos.

Let's follow our reporter Chen Zhe to meet the family.

The girl who is singing is named Cheng Jingjing. Jingjing and her family live here in Beijing. Her father Cheng Xiaoyang is Chinese and her mother Phukham Ongvichit is Laotian.

The happy life of this cross-cultural family is pretty much the same as any other family, but is rooted in the deep love between two people from different countries.

In 1996, Cheng Xiaoyang went to Laos for a cooperative program between the Chinese and Lao governments. Cheng met Ongvichit's mother, through whom he got to know Ongvichit.

The program that Cheng participated in lasted just one year. Yet, over the following two years when they separated in different countries, Ongvichit and Cheng never lost contact. They called each other and sent each other letters.

As the story goes, when Cheng visited Laos in 1999, he had only one mission - to propose to Ongvichit.

Ongvichit recalls the story with a smile on her face.

"Marriage is a big deal, and I am the only daughter in my family. We must get the approval of my mother first. I'm glad that my mother liked him and gave us her blessing. In my eyes, he is a good guy, nice, responsible and principled."

But for Chen, making a good impression wasn't so easy, considering all the communication was done in Lao. He never studied the language in school, but he now speaks it fluently. He says love was a great motivation for him to pick up the language.

"I learned all my Lao during the year in Laos. Before that, I only spoke Chinese and English. I confess that I managed to learn the language so well so quickly mainly to approach Ongvichit, my lover. I had to speak her language well to win her heart."

The happy couple settled down in Beijing in 1999, but it took Ongvichit quite some time to adapt to the hustle and bustle of the metropolis.

"When I first came here, I went to a park. The park was so crowded that it took me more than an hour to make it through from the front gate to the back gate. Back in my country, we only see so many people on the street during big festival seasons like the Thatluang festival."

As Ongvichit slowly adapts to life in her new home city, Beijing itself is developing rapidly.

Ongvichit speaks as a witness to the change:

"It's been ten years since I settled here. The difference is huge in various ways, in transportation, urban construction, people's living conditions or just environmental protection. For example, ten years ago, the buses were all powered by petrol, but today, some of them already use greener energies like gas or electricity. The change here is so huge that it's usually the case that if you visit a place two or three years later, you won't recognize it anymore."

Indeed, ten years have passed, and their family has changed too. Now Cheng and Ongvichit have two lovely daughters; Jingjing, who was just singing, is the older daughter. She is now eight years old, and a primary school student. The other, named Jiajia, is five. They both like playing the piano and singing. And they've also demonstrated their talents in children's programs on China's Central Television.

The family visits Laos when the girls have summer and winter breaks. The girls have formed their own memories of the landlocked country in Southeast Asia.

"I've been to Laos several times. Yes, I like the place. I like the way the streets look; the villas there look different from Beijing's high-rise apartment buildings. And you always see monks on the street."

"I especially like the elephants there. I like to touch their big bellies, they are cute, chunky and they can help people transport big logs."

Cheng Xiaoyang says he hopes when the girls are grown up, they will help bridge the cultural exchange between China and Laos better, based on their deep understanding of both cultures.

For Life in China, this is Chen Zhe.