This is the 410th oral story of Selfie
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Wang Lixuan/Oral
Shao Xun / Written by
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My name is Wang Lixuan (@尧明吃中国), my real name is Ahmed Mohammed Jaber Alkaltoum, and I was born in 1994 to a wealthy family in Iraq. In 2014, my sister and I came to China with our parents and have been in China for more than nine years.
In 2020, I took a vlog photo during an interview with Xinhua News Agency.
When I was a child, Iraq was a very rich country. My grandfather was a Confucian and he had a big business. They had four wives, two Iraqis, one Syrian, and one Egyptian. This was common in our country before the war - as long as you treated every wife fairly.
My grandfather's house has a large garden villa with about 800 square meters. Every weekend, everyone in the family, including children and grandchildren, would gather in the grandfather's large villa, and often a dozen children would play together. Everyone will celebrate Eid al-Adha together. The children are only a few years old. They are happy together and feel very happy.
At that time, Iraq had a high status among Arab countries. No matter which Arab country you go to, as long as you say you are Iraqi, everyone will respect you. Because we have oil, our country is very rich. The government pays its citizens every month. Medical care is free and school education is free. Everyone lives with a sense of security.
My father was a petroleum engineer, my mother married him after high school, and we had two younger sisters and me. Since 2003, the situation in Iraq has become increasingly volatile. As the smoke of the war intensified, my parents decided to take me and my 9-year-old sister to Syria.
When I was a child, in Iraq, there was a picture of me and my mother and sister. The photo in the middle is of my grandfather.
Syrians are especially warm and friendly to those of us fleeing war. Their country is close to us, and they hear our war cry, so they sympathize with our suffering. When I first came to Syria and needed to rent a house, the landlord vacated the house to me, and I lived with relatives. They also offer rent relief for the first three months.
We have lived in Syria for ten years. For the first two years, my father could not find a stable job professionally, and the family's financial situation deteriorated. Later, when his only friend in Iraq fled to Syria, his father reconnected with his former contacts and finally returned to his old job as a petroleum engineer, and the family's financial situation improved.
After several years of stability in Syria, the conflict between the Syrian people and the government escalated in 2011 and became particularly brutal. During the war, our family struggled to make ends meet. At that time, my father was still working, my mother was taking care of the family, I was studying in Syria, and my sister and his wife were also studying.
When I was young in Syria, I was the dark-skinned boy in the photo with my mother and sister's family.
Because it is a small country, adults and children are inseparable. Elementary and junior high schools go to school at seven or eight o'clock, and return to school at half-past twelve or at one o'clock. We don't do our homework at school or go to school anywhere else. Even after marriage, it is customary to add a floor to the villa so that the children can live together.
But the war will force countless families to face separation. One day in 2012, my mother was taking me out to buy a large pancake when I suddenly heard gunshots far away. I was standing in line to buy cakes in front of a cake shop when someone came up to me and fired a bazooka next to me, blowing up the tank next to me. After the explosion, the people on the other side also came out and continued to attack where I was.
I hid nearby. Half an hour later, I came out thinking it was okay, but I was shot as soon as I came out. The bullet entered from behind the wrist and shot from the front of the abdomen, leaving a bloody hole in the opposite direction. It didn't hurt at all, but my legs were soft, I couldn't stand up, and I immediately fell.
Later I was taken to the hospital. Due to the frequent war, the hospital was overcrowded. People in the hospital said that if the police came, they would think you were "the people out there." When "people over there" come, they think you're a policeman. In any case, you will die. So I was forced to hide and go home to recover slowly.
Photos of me and my two sisters in Syria.
After that incident, my family decided to look for a peaceful country. I have an uncle who lived in Syria for six years, and his daughter, my cousin, is married to a Chinese man. The family later moved to Ningxia, China, where he taught Arabic at the Ningxia International Language School.
Because of the war, friends and family are scattered around the world. Some of my family went to Russia, some went to Dubai, some went to Vietnam, some went to Egypt. Everyone had a good relationship and welcomed us, but I really liked China.
I grew up watching Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. I also watched a movie made by Egyptians in China about Egyptian life in China. I remember the feeling of getting along with everyone in the movie, the feeling of friendly smiles between people, I remember very deeply. So I've been curious about China since I was a kid.
So we made a quick decision and came to China through my uncle's introduction. The war in Syria was terrible. First we went to Damascus, the capital of Syria, and then found that there were no flights, so we had to arrange a car to Lebanon first. After spending some time in Lebanon and waiting for a Chinese visa to be issued, I moved from Lebanon to Egypt and finally arrived in China.
A group photo of the whole family after arriving in China. In 2014, my parents took me and two aces, a group of five, to Ningxia. My uncle worked hard to help us integrate into life in China: my father was an electrician who could repair all kinds of appliances so he could earn money, while my mother also worked in the school kitchen, cooking Arabic rice for both international and non-international students. Arab teacher. I've eaten Chinese food before. Mom was very happy after receiving everything. In his opinion, as long as it is not separated from the children, anything is fine. My uncle said I could go to school as a teacher and teach Arabic, and my sister could learn Chinese at that school.
We just fumbled a bit and stayed in China. Because I am not familiar with this place and can't say Chinese at all, plus I grew up in the war, and I have also been hit by arrows and escaped arrows, I am actually very insecure in my heart and do not know how to protect myself.
Before coming to China, I studied at a university in Syria and graduated in just two years. After coming to China, I wanted to go to school like my sister, but after everyone came to China, the family's expenses were too much, and the income was unstable, and my three children could not go to school. School.
After my sister came to China, she studied Chinese at school.
At that time, their parents' combined monthly income was more than 5,000 yuan, and their sister's annual tuition fee was 16,000 yuan. The combined income of the younger sister and his wife exceeded 30,000 yuan. The tuition fee of more than 30,000 yuan a year was very expensive for us at that time. I remember very well that in 2014, we celebrated the first Eid al-Adha after arriving in China. According to custom, we are going to kill a sheep. My uncle's family and I went to buy sheep and spent only 450 yuan.
More than 10,000 can buy more than 30 goats! So if I ask for school again, my parents won't be able to go to school, and both younger sisters are very cultured and always take first, so it feels very good to spend money. So I can't force my parents, I have to earn money to support the family.
So I started teaching Arabic at Ningxia International Language School for three years. At that time, I studied Arabic with a Chinese girl for 6 months. Since we don't speak Chinese at all, we communicate in Arabic all the time, and the girl's Arabic is getting better and better. But six months later, a villager came and asked if I had a relationship with this woman. I later learned from him that he had actually married a year ago, and had sent his wedding photos and marriage certificates to friends.
Learn Arabic at Ningxia International Language School.
I was hit hard, and then for three months I cried every day and cried a lot. At that time, I was very young, I didn't understand anything, and my feelings were very rich. I wanted to marry him and even take him to meet his parents. And then we broke up like that, and it felt amazing.
After this incident, I began to feel that I should learn Chinese well. Chinese hard, how can I learn it well? My uncle's son, my cousin, came to China with his parents and sister at a very young age and studied in China. At that time, he was studying at Ningxia University and had excellent academic performance. Once when we were playing together, I saw that he spoke fluently with his Chinese friends, not unlike Chinese. It dawned on me that there was hope for this.
Later I learned that as a foreigner, as long as you are willing to say Chinese, Chinese will be very enthusiastic about you. For example, when I say "hello" to someone, my Chinese friends respond enthusiastically with a series of "hello, hello, hello, hello" from the bottom of their hearts. I think I should learn the language well.
I am an Arabic teacher at Ningxia International Language School and a homeroom teacher for international students.
For the next three months, I closed my doors, did nothing, and concentrated on my Chinese, using the HSK Standard Course. The textbook has about 1,200 Chinese characters and reads something like "What's your name?" "This is the most basic language of communication. "How old are you?" "How do you say that?" "What does that mean?" Then on this basis, I slowly began to communicate with people, until now.
At the beginning of 2017, by chance, I came across the opportunity to change my life and career for the first time. One day, I was dressed beautifully at school, wearing a nice coat and a nice beard. I was like a rich man in the Middle East, with tens of millions of dollars, but I actually had nothing. That day, I met a beautiful woman and asked me for a WeChat account.
At that time, my Chinese was still very average, and I could only communicate in a simple way. I asked him: Why did you add me to WeChat? They said we would be models. What model do I say? He said the model came on stage, walked two steps, and when he came back I could give him 500 yuan.
Photos of models in the past.
Wow, 500 yuan is too expensive for me now, not to mention that a goat only sells for 450 yuan! So they invited me to be a model. Then he contacted me to say he was going somewhere else in two weeks, and I asked him what he meant by "outside place". He said that if he went somewhere else, he had to go to another city.
The first time I went to another part of China, I even took a train to Linhe in Inner Mongolia. I thought I was going to be a model, but when we arrived in Inner Mongolia, a car picked us up and drove deeper and deeper into the desert. In the end, there was no signal from the mobile phone.
I thought to myself, it's all over, I've been kidnapped, there are no models working in the desert, my wrists are going to disappear.
Anxious cars drove to the scene of the shooting. The staff asked me to change my clothes and I said how to make a model in the desert? Then I saw a lot of people gathered a little further away from the car, all kinds of lights, all kinds of "start actions" and other noises, and I realized that they were making a movie in the desert.
I was happy. Then I made my first movie, the role was a drug dealer, and the director thought I was okay with acting and recommended me another director. Later, everyone recommended each other, and I got a lot of new roles.
Past photos are models of the activities of the business. I will also send a circle of friends and call friends to help me continue, hoping to get more job opportunities. Friends in Ningxia treat me very well. I love making movies, so I said: I don't need money, as long as I can give good roles. Later, with the help of everyone, I got more opportunities and my role became better.
According to Chinese law, foreigners must return to China without working in China. In May 2017, my parents lost their jobs due to school construction. Then he had problems with his visa and had to leave China for Turkey. At that time, my older sister had already gone to Shanghai to study for a bachelor's degree at the University of Overseas Chinese because of her excellent academic performance. I have made a lot of friends in China for three years and have a relatively stable income. Considering that if I went to a new country with them, the whole family would be very sorry for the language barrier, so I decided to stay in China.
Our families are scattered all over the world and it is not easy for everyone. We have to do everything on our own. Parents and family are like a team. My parents have been carrying our three young children for many years. From childhood to adulthood, from Iraq to Syria, China, Turkey, they have suffered greatly. So in my heart, if my parents and sister are doing well, I am satisfied.
Photos of my parents after they went to Turkey.
So I told them that if you go to Turkey, I have a friend here who can help me, and from now on I will be responsible for your living expenses in Turkey. So until now, I have insisted on giving at least 3,000 yuan a month to my parents and little sister, and 1,500 yuan to my sister who is studying in Shanghai. If my income is good, I will donate more.
After my parents and little sister went to Turkey, I left school and started my own company. I started making commercials and films, then I got into contact with the Internet, TikTok, and started doing independent media.
So far, I have participated in the shooting of 32 films, and I have traveled to Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Northeast China and other places due to work.
I (right) took early photos of the film.
In fact, my company grew well in film, but then we didn't have the money to invest in two films. At that time, I had a dozen brothers in my company. The investors didn't give me money, but I had to pay my brother's salary myself, so I was in financial trouble. After paying my brother's salary, I still owed my friend 50,000 yuan. From now on, I want to do something more believable and I don't want to make movies anymore.
Some of my friends at the time were business owners and they liked my optimistic personality. Then I asked them, "Can you give me a brother a chance to tell me a little bit about how you make money?" You know that each of you is at a high level, and you definitely don't want a good brother like me, which is not good. "Communication is different, I'm with you, I can only laugh and drink, nothing else can be done."
In May 2018, I returned to Iraq to apply for a new passport and my family returned from Turkey for a brief reunion.
Then he told me he was selling, he found a brand, and then he found more people to sell with him. Not only wholesale, but also online and offline. Once you've come over and acquired customers, you can start building your brand.
I ask again, what did you do in the first year, what did you do in the second year, how did you do in the third year. They just tell me how much I made in the first year, how much I lost in the second year, what happened after that, and then gradually got better. I thought it was funny and started to do different goods.
When the pandemic spread in early 2020, my parents in Turkey were very worried about my safety. He saw some information on the Internet and felt that the epidemic in China was very serious, unsafe, and would starve to death, so he gave me a ticket and asked me to assemble immediately.
I just came back from outside and bought some vegetables. I felt guilty. I made it clear to my parents that if I bought groceries, I could go out and everything was fine. I also sent him some videos and he finally believed that I was fine.
In order to let the outside world know the real situation in China, I made a micro-movie "Boots Flying Over a Low Wall" at my own expense.
I didn't feel well. My parents had a lot of gossip abroad that scared me. He posted a short video spreading rumors about China. When I see them, don't they shout "come on"? But the translation below is "we're starving to death" and then says that everyone can starve to death at home.
So I decided to make a short film to show everyone that China is very safe. I filmed some scenes of the staff and community of the epidemic prevention work to let everyone know that China's epidemic prevention work is doing a good job. You can buy essential food and groceries under the community. Chinese Very friendly. It was then converted into microfiche called The Truth (also known as Boots That Flew Over a Low Wall).
This micro-movie is worth about 60,000 to 70,000 yuan, and I am responsible for it, regardless of the issue of return. Later, we collected more than 30 videos of foreigners living in different parts of China. We posted this video on social media abroad. When my mother saw the video, she was relieved and allowed me to stay in China.
After filming, he was interviewed by Xinhua News Agency "Boots Flying Over a Low Wall".
In May 2020, two friends and I co-founded the Mongolian beef jerky brand, and I was responsible for live sales. Mongolian beef jerky is famous in China, but not in Iraq. It has its own historical and cultural background. At first, I sold it in the Douyin live broadcast room for two months, and no one bought it. Back then, no matter who was there, I would broadcast live for four hours a day and always say the same thing. In the third month, it was finally sold for 500 yuan. I am very happy and feel that there is finally hope for this matter. To celebrate, I paid a friend to go to KTV to celebrate and spent 1500 yuan.
Since then, the traffic of the live broadcast space has steadily increased. In our first year, we generated more than 20 million sales. In fact, it only took a year and a half to make money selling something seriously.
The first thing I did after getting the money was to buy a house and a car for my family in Turkey. I spent about 300,000 yuan in total. It was my happiest moment of the year. That's when my father injured his knee while cycling in Turkey. I didn't feel well. It happened that the live broadcast results were good, so I bought a house and a car.
Photos of my family eating together in Turkey. Her happiness is my biggest goal.
Later, because I didn't let foreigners live broadcast, I once dressed up as a Xinjiang person. In fact, I've been in China for many years and I really don't consider myself an outsider. I'm a foreigner, but I'm not an outsider. I told everyone that I am from Xinjiang, and then my friend who broadcast live asked you Xinjiang people to sell jerky in Inner Mongolia, and I said no, Inner Mongolians go. Going to Xinjiang to sell meat skewers?
The live streaming space was very interesting at that time. They all said something and were happy. The beef jerky repurchase rate is also good. Everyone was happy. Some even buy back two or three times a month or buy it as a gift for a friend.
But later, because the sales of beef jerky were too large, one of our partners started selling pork jerky as jerky. It was sold for one day and the next day it became clear that something was wrong. The partners said that because the factory's output is high, dried pork should be put on top first. We had a big fight about it. Considering that this partner has integrity problems, even if I can get hundreds of thousands of turnover a day, I still decided to end the cooperation.
After that, another brother and I created an account "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and I played Guan Yu. We invested more than 1 million yuan in that live broadcast room, and it took two months to decorate and build. It was then broadcast live for about 15 days, with more than 19,000 viewers and a great success. However, due to regulations that do not allow live broadcasting, this live broadcast space has not been able to operate smoothly.
A photo taken during the live broadcast of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Last year, I started a business with another Chinese friend and created a new brand of jerky. Our name is "Dragon Bang". The dragon represents China, and the gang means helping each other and being friendly.
This friend and I met while working as an Arabic teacher. At that time, his future wife wanted to learn Arabic, but he couldn't sign up because he didn't show up during the registration period, so I promised him free lessons from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. He was very touched at the time, and we are familiar with him. Later he broke up with his fiancé, but I kept in touch with him and our relationship became better. He understood a lot of things I was facing and helped me with a lot of visa issues.
So we started working together and learning together. It can be said that he changed everything for me. Now he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the beef jerky business. We have factories in Inner Mongolia and Chongqing. At the same time, I also opened my personal Douyin account "Lao Wang in China" to share Chinese food from various places through videos.
Longbang company was founded by me and a friend, and now has a factory building of 14,000 square meters.
The current account was originally created as a result of a change in the live streaming policy. If you have more than 500,000 foreign followers, you can sign up for the live broadcast. So, we wanted to see what content could quickly increase our followers to 500,000 and then chart the direction based on my own characteristics and preferences. My brother knows that I love to eat, and the words I use when commenting on food are sometimes funny. I have a bold personality and like to laugh with everyone, so I chose this content direction.
We tried to shoot a video about beef noodles, and the first video went viral. I've been working on this account for three months and have already collected over 1 million followers since the beginning. Our plan is to stay in each town for more than ten days and then head to new towns in search of new food. We tried live streaming and the maximum reach was over 9,000 people, which was great. But now we're going to build traffic and video content first, so we've been doing video.
In recent years, I have been working hard due to the needs of work. Until now, when my sister and I were studying at Shanghai Overseas Chinese University, I hadn't seen him at school. We only have one phone. Now that my situation has stabilized, I also hope to bring my parents to China for reunion this New Year.
In 2022, a very trusted friend introduced me to the crew of "Thousands of Miles Home", and I ended up playing Kamal, a movie role I haven't seen in years. I only spent 15 days in the crew, and it was the terrible environment of the war, which was very terrifying. Sometimes I suddenly feel enchanted that I'm not making a movie, I'm going back to Iraq.
Photo taken in "The Way Home".
I've seen the movie, there's a bridge there. The fighting on this side of the bridge is particularly fierce, but on the other side of the bridge, there is singing, dancing, drinking and having fun. For me, having left Iraq and Syria, I have now walked from one side of the bridge to the other, so it doesn't matter, even if I eat steamed buns, I feel optimistic and happy.
So far, whether it is the bastard business or the video number TikTok, I am still in the investment stage and have not yet started to make a profit. But along the way, I saw a lot of scenery, learned a lot, experienced different cultures and cuisines. Everyone was very patient and patient with me, which helped me grow faster than others. Everything makes me very happy.
This is the security that brings people peace.
Douyin searches for "Lao Wang in China" to see videos shot by the protagonist
[This collection of pictures and texts is exclusively published in the headlines today, and reproduction is prohibited] The above is the real experience shared by @yaomingchi in China. This is also the 410th edition of the oral story of Selfie. If you also want to tell a story, send me a "private message" to tell me "Selfie". If you like watching Selfies, click "···" in the upper right corner 【Appreciation】.
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