James Wemyss, a white-collar employee has lived in China for over 15 years working as a data analyst. However, apart from his long work experience in China, what intrigued online Chinese Internet users the most was another aspect of his life – namely, that he loves doing farm work in the countryside.
Photo shows James Wemyss doing farm work. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Video footage showing Wemyss busy with farm work garnered tens of millions of thumbs-up from Chinese netizens. The young man, born in New Hampshire in the U.S., noted that what he wanted to display is his down-to-earth lifestyle.
Wemyss’s fascination towards Chinese culture can be traced back to his childhood when his father often took him to enjoy delicious food at the local China Town, along with the little boy’s grandma, who took great pleasure in collecting pieces of Chinese artware.
In addition to obtaining a double bachelor’s degrees in environmental science and international business, Wemyss also took advantage of an opportunity to study Chinese at a Confucius Institute in Washington. The young man has been rooted in China since 2006 when he decided to pursue a master’s degree in business administration at Tsinghua University.
Photo shows James Wemyss in a farm field. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
In 2019, Wemyss started a family in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality with a local girl surnamed Lin. Since Lin’s grandparents lived in the countryside of Peng’an county, Nanchong city, southwest China’s Sichuan province, which is not far away from Chongqing, Wemyss and Lin spent almost all their weekends and holidays visiting the old couple.
When Wemyss arrived in the countryside for the first time, he was amazed by the rich variety of farm work people did there. "There is merely a rural population of 2,000-3,000 in a U.S. village, while this figure is about ten times that in China," Wemyss explained, joking that "I could experience new types of work every time when I arrive at the grandparents’ home."
James Wemyss gives a speech at his workplace. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
"I live a happy life in China," said Wemyss, who took great pleasure in spending his spare time learning to transplant rice seedlings, grow vegetables, pick fruits, make bean curd, feed pigs and chickens, and plow fields.
According to Wemyss, although his video clips went viral on the Internet, he will continue to concentrate on his career as a data analyst. "One year or two years later, it will be great if netizens still like me. But my routine life will still be the same," said the Internet celebrity who has over one million followers on social media.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2021/0820/c98649-9886464.html