The new story of the old villa in Lushan - Swede Jonny in Lushan

If you are a mountaineering enthusiast, you may meet a tall foreigner and a small Chinese woman on a mountain road in Lushan, if you are a tourist, you may see them while wandering around Guling Street, and if you are a resident of Lushan, you can definitely meet them at the vegetable market and express station in Lushan. They are a foreign couple who have settled in Lushan, Jonny from Sweden and his Chinese wife Anna. They are the new owners of a century-old villa in Lushan, and this villa is Wesley Villa.

Villa Wesley was built in 1921 by the British religious figure John Wesley, belonging to the 19th century English village style, its plot on the map of the early development of Lushan is No. 24, and the current house number is No. 11 Poyang Road. This villa used to be inhabited by three Lushan residents, and a friend of mine rented it from them a few years ago, and under the guidance of the villa experts in Lushan, the villa was completely renovated, and the renovated villa became a typical Nordic style villa. Perhaps in the dark, the villa has been waiting for a new owner, Jonny, from Northern Europe. Coincidentally, when Jonny and Anna moved into Wesley Villa, it happened to be the villa's 100th anniversary. While I don't know much about the story of the first owner of Wesleyan Villa, I know a lot about the story of the current owner, as I am sometimes a part of that story.

First acquaintance with Jonny and Anna

The first contact with Jonny and Anna was through WeChat, and when they rented a Wesley villa at the end of 2021, they needed to consult about the renovation of the villa, and they contacted me through a friend, so we interacted through WeChat for more than half a year. At that time, because of the new crown epidemic, they were locked down in Shanghai. At the end of June 2022, when Shanghai was unblocked, they drove directly to Lushan from Shanghai.

When they moved into Lushan, my summer vacation life officially began. Lushan in summer is busy, we are busy with each other, and there has been no contact. Until mid-August, the Lushan International Love Movie Week was held in Lushan, because Jonny was interested in the event, so we participated in some activities of the film week together. I vividly remember the day I walked into the courtyard of Wesley's villa, the first time I saw Jonny and Anna, the first time I sat in the pavilion in the courtyard of the century-old villa and drank tea, and the first time I tasted Jonny's Swedish cake. That afternoon, we went to see the celebrities walk the red carpet, had dinner at KFC, watched the movie "Lushan Love" at the Lushan Love Cinema, and participated in the live interaction with the actor of the "Lushan Love" movie and other movie stars. We were friends for many years, and we had a great time chatting and having fun.

The love story of Jonny and Anna

In my mind, foreign marriages will have more collisions because of different cultural backgrounds and languages, but their happy marriages are enviable. In 1999, Jonny represented Volvo Sweden to inspect a project in China, which was his first time in China. Jonny first met Anna at an international conference in Beijing, where she was an English volunteer at the conference while she was studying at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Chinese. Jonny fell in love with Anna at first sight, but he didn't say anything at the time, just asked Anna for contact information, and he returned home after the meeting. The following year he came to China again on business, and he found Anna to express his love. Soon they went to Anna's hometown to get their marriage certificate, and they were the first cross-border marriage in the region, and the registration process was full of twists and turns. After their marriage, Anna and Jonny returned to live in Sweden. Soon, however, Jonny was sent to Shanghai by Volvo headquarters to take charge of the company's projects, and Anna returned to China. In 2000, Jonny was one of the first foreign senior experts invited by China to work at SAIC Motor (Sunwin) for seven years. In 2005, the Shanghai Communist Party History Publishing House published a white paper entitled "Looking Back on the 20 Years of Reform and Opening-up of Our Party, Looking Forward to the Future - Remembering Ten Foreign Friends Who Have Made Major Contributions to the Construction of China", and Johnny is one of them. In the West there is a tradition of inheriting the names of family members, which is a continuation of love, and Anna is the name of Jonny's favorite grandmother, who gave this name to his wife. In the process of interacting with them, I can feel that their love is still the same as when I first saw her, and it also confirms what Jonny once told me, he said that his love for Anna has not changed since he first met her.

Jonny has worked in several countries and Anna has always been by his side. When Jonny retired, they began to look for a place to retire. They had the intention of settling in Lisbon, Portugal, but eventually gave up. Later, Jonny suggested that Anna look for a place to retire in China. In 2020, Jonny is in the United States and Anna is alone in China. Anna came to Lushan and lived in Wesley's villa for half a month, and she loved this villa very much. She said that the retirement house must have a courtyard because Jonny likes to do manual work in the courtyard, and the courtyard of Wesley's villa meets their needs. At that time, the owner of this villa was interested in subletting, so Anna contacted Johnny in the United States and finally decided to rent this villa for retirement. I once asked them why they chose to retire in Lushan, and Jonny said that he was deeply attracted by the beautiful natural scenery, the four-season climate and the fresh air, as well as the cultural landscape and historical sites of Lushan, especially the villa culture. He said that Lushan is unique among China's famous mountains. He and Anna are mountaineering enthusiasts and members of a mountaineering club in the United States, a hobby that can be fully satisfied in Lushan, where there are more than 100 peaks waiting for them to explore.

In the 70s of the last century, Anna's father brought his family from Shanghai to Jiujiang to support the construction of Jiangxi, and Anna spent her middle school years in Jiujiang, where her relatives and friends were located. I think what really made Jonny decide to retire in Lushan was his deep love for Anna. He said that Anna had followed him around the world for the first 20 years, and that he would spend the next 20 years with her in China. Jonny never thought about getting a Chinese driver's license when he was working in China, but after deciding to settle in Lushan, he deliberately obtained a Chinese driver's license in 2021, just to experience the feeling of driving in Lushan with his beloved.

Daily life in Guling

The former tenant of Wesley's villa, a friend of mine, told me that at the time more than one family wanted to rent the villa, but eventually he was willing to sublet the villa to Jonny and Anna. The reason is, he thinks they are better equipped to protect this villa. The first thing Jonny and Anna did when they officially settled in Lushan Guling was to repair and organize the villa as a whole. They set up a pavilion under a hundred-year-old tree in the courtyard with tables and chairs, and it was a great place to watch the sunset. After half a year of maintenance, the interior, exterior and courtyard of Wesley Villa have been greatly improved. They were personally involved in the renovation of the villa, and Jonny's practical skills in life were demonstrated in the process. He personally installed solar and decorative lights in the yard, painted the villa's verandah, and treated the moldy walls of the basement...... After half a year of hard work, they began to truly enjoy the leisurely life in Lushan.

Jonny and Anna live the life of ordinary people in Lushan Guling, but more colorful. They go to Jiujiang METRO once a week to buy, and Jonny's high demand for ingredients is met in METRO, a wholesale and retail supermarket from Germany. The vegetables grown by the local people themselves are loved by them. They have a good relationship with their neighbors and interact with each other from time to time. They are members of the Lushan Tourism Photography Association, and occasionally go to collect wind with photographers from Lushan. They climb the peaks of Lushan with their friends or by themselves, invite friends to their homes to taste Western food cooked by Jonny himself, hold barbecue parties in the courtyard, sit under the hundred-year-old tree to drink tea and chat, and they will also visit the homes of old friends and new friends in Lushan. They often tended their own gardens and planted their favorite flowers and plants, and today the courtyard of Villa Wesley is a beautiful garden, just like the one in their Swedish home.

If you meet Jonny and Anna in Lushan, you will see that they are often accompanied by a dog. The dog was a stray dog adopted by Jonny, and Anna gave it a Chinese name - Laifu. Jonny says that it wasn't he who adopted Lyph, it was Rifle who chose him. After being adopted, Rifle lived happily ever after at Wesley's Villa, and Anna bought all the utensils it needed. Soon, Jonny and Anna discover that Rifle is a pregnant dog, so they not only give Rifle more nutrition, but also start preparing for the delivery. Two weeks later, Rifles gave birth to 10 puppies, and they named them in the order in which they were born, and it was a lot of work to take care of the mother dog and the 10 puppies, and the space in Wesley's villa could not accommodate a dozen dogs. When the puppies are full moon, Anna looks for owners for them in the circle of friends. Although I already have a puppy, my husband and I are interested in adopting another one because the day the puppy was born is also my birthday. Every time someone comes to adopt a dog, Jonny always sends me a WeChat message asking me to choose one first, but I don't have time. Eventually, we adopted Jonny and Anna's favorite child, and we were going to leave it to them, and from then on, Jiu'er became another link between me and them. On the day they picked up Jiu'er, they were reluctant in every way. After picking up Jiu'er, my husband and I often shared Jiu'er's photos and videos with them on WeChat, and seeing Jiu'er's living situation, they must have felt relieved. Now Jiu'er is already a big "long-legged girl", and in the summer of 2023, it will return to Wesley's villa to visit its mother Laifu, and soon recognize Jonny and Anna, I wonder if it will remember the scene when Jonny played with it when he was a child. In the future, I will take Jiu'er to the province.

Participate in cultural activities in Lushan

Anna used to live in Jiujiang, so she has no shortage of friends. But Jonny was a little lonely because there were very few people who could communicate with him, and he was delighted that I was there. In addition to bringing friends to visit them, I have planned two activities for Jonny to deeply participate in Lushan School and interact with the children in Lushan. In November 2022, I invited Jonny and Anna to observe and participate in our school's art festival. I tailor-made the sitcom "Follow the Ancient Poems to Lushan" for my students and invited Jonny to participate. From the multiple revisions of the script to the repeated rehearsals of the students, after more than a month, Jonny participated directly in the performance, and our program became the highlight of the entire festival. On a spring afternoon in April 2023, I planned the "Date with Wesley Villa in Spring" event, which was supported by Jonny and Anna, who hosted more than 20 children from Lushan School in the courtyard of Wesley's villa, and I prepared a sumptuous picnic food and drink, and Jonny made Swedish cakes and snacks for the children a day earlier. During the activity, Jonny interacted with each student in spoken English and answered questions that the children were interested in. He also took the children on a tour of Wesley's Villa and shared with them the results of their efforts to clean up Wesley's Villa. This activity is a gift from Jonny and Anna to the children of Lushan, they sowed the seeds of love, sharing, gratitude, and progress, and their hard work from the preparation to the end of the event must have melted into the children's laughter.

When Johnny first came to Lushan, he was only attracted by the natural scenery of Lushan, and then slowly understood the history and culture of Lushan. The villa culture that attracted him the most was only after he met He Lixin, a retired teacher from Lushan Middle School. Mr. He Lixin, who is over 80 years old, used to be my junior high school homeroom teacher and physics teacher. I remember that at that time he often took pictures with his camera. Now in his 80s, he is still old, and I can still meet him on the road with a camera on his back. Mr. He Lixin spent nearly 40 years shooting, collecting and sorting out the materials of Lushan Villa. In recent years, Mr. He has been raising funds for the publication of his book "Lushan Centennial Villa". This book includes 556 villas from more than 20 countries in Lushan, with more than 2,000 photos and more than 200,000 words of text descriptions. In December this year, the launch ceremony of "Lushan Centennial Villa" was held in Lushan, and Mr. He choked up several times when he spoke, and only he understood the touching and bitterness that he had come all the way in the past 40 years. The publication of this book went through several twists and turns, and finally it was successfully published, and Jonny and Anna played a key role, not only personally driving Mr. He to Nanchang to finalize the manuscript with the publishing house, but also continued to help raise funds with Anna in the later stage, and finally made the book successfully published. Jonny said that "Lushan Centennial Villa" is a very precious material, it is not only Lushan but also an important part of the world heritage, it shows the world and our descendants the style of the old villa of Lushan, so that future people know the story of what happened here. He is also looking forward to the publication of the English version of the book.

Jonny said that in 2001, when he first went to Lushan, he fell in love with Lushan, the mountains, the paths, the towns and the villas. I think the one that fascinates him the most among these villas is probably the Swedish villa. The foreigners who once lived in Lushan are mostly British and Americans, and there are many Swedes, and among the 556 villas collected by Mr. He Lixin's "Lushan Centennial Villa", 20 are about Swedish villas, ranking fourth in the number of villas in various countries. Built in 1934, the Lushan Library not only has a large number of ancient books, but also more than 60,000 foreign language books, which are traces of foreigners who once lived in Lushan. Among these books in foreign languages is a set of Swedish encyclopedias published in 1904, which is remarkable. Swedish is a small language, and this set of books has been waiting quietly in the Lushan Library. In the second half of 2023, at the invitation of the Lushan Library, Jonny participated in the research of the Swedish encyclopedia. When Jonny first saw and opened the book with his own eyes, he was very excited, and he carefully saw that there were signatures on the books, and he told me that when he saw the signatures, he was sure that the books belonged to some religious family in Sweden. I forwarded the picture of the Swede in Lushan that my American friend helped me find to Jonny. Jonny told me that he had also found information about the Swedes in Lushan on the Internet. Jonny has always had a dream that one day he will be able to bring together the descendants of the Swedes who once lived in Lushan. I think Jonny will have a wonderful journey through this series of books, and I believe that in the near future, the story of the Swedes who once lived in Lushan will be slowly revealed.

June 16, 2023 is the 20th anniversary of the burial of Chen Yinke, a master of Chinese sinology, and his wife in Lushan. After learning that Jonny and Anna had settled in Lushan and were interested in Lushan culture, the director of the Lushan Cultural Research Center of Jiujiang University and his colleagues made a special trip to Wesley's villa and invited them to participate in the seminar. Unfortunately, they had already made a trip back to Sweden. But on the day of the seminar, Jonny sent a video from Sweden to wish the "Chen Yinke Seminar" a smooth convening. He said that Mr. Chen Yinke has traveled to more than 20 countries, and he has also traveled to nearly 30 countries, and he believes that he and Mr. Chen Yinke must have crossed paths in more than one place at different times, and Lushan is the most special intersection. He believes that the seminar held by Mr. Chen Yinke in Jiujiang University is a very meaningful thing, which can allow more people to understand Chen Yinke's scholarship and spirit, and can pass it on.

Jonny was the first foreigner to settle in Lushan Guling after the founding of the People's Republic of China, a hundred years ago Guling was a community of foreigners, and now Jonny is the only foreigner in the community to settle. I asked him if his relatives or friends would come to live in Lushan? Here, Jonny and Anna have a harmonious neighborhood and live like locals, they have their own circle of friends and participate in their favorite social activities, they hike and climb the picturesque scenery of the four seasons, and they drink tea, coffee and enjoy the beautiful sunset in the garden-like courtyard of Wesley's villa. Occasionally, I join them and feel the leisurely time flow through my fingertips. My life will also become more interesting and colorful because of the intersection with their lives in time and space.

(The author is an expert in the evaluation of UNESCO Global Geoparks and the editor-in-chief of Impression Lushan)