Undoubtedly one of my strongest friendships from my Zhengzhou period was that of the high school teacher Popo. His Chinese name was Niu Xiao Qing. But he immediately asked me to call him Popo. I say high school teacher but I don’t believe he actually taught a class in the time I was there. He had his hands in various side hustles but most of the time he didn’t have much money. He was about 30 years old (to my 21yo). I originally met him in a small city called Hebi just outside of Zhengzhou. I was looking to hire a Chinese teacher to help my language fluency. Weirdly I just approached the local high school gates and they invited me in and I met some of the English department (the rules were a bit different over there at that time, they wouldn’t do that in Scotland). I met one of the department heads and he was very enthusiastic about helping me learn Chinese. Popo was one of the teachers assigned to help me.

My first impressions of him actually weren’t that great. He kept trying to teach me the technique of writing Chinese characters (the order of the strokes) and the building blocks of the characters as opposed to the vocabulary and phrases that I wanted to learn. However it turned out he had worked in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a sort of steward. There he had honed his spoken English. He was more westernised than most other Chinese. I even fancied him as a bit more of a rebel which was actually quite a statement in such an obedient culture. He was quite an outgoing person. Quite a lot more mature than me. Popo had the gift of the gab, as we would say in Scotland. At 21 I was extremely immature and often had disagreements with people at the time and later when I lived in Zhengzhou. When that happened Popo was always able to advise me by telephone. Popo was actually quite tolerant and empathetic in his own way.

One time we played football together with all his friends. The pitch was astroturf. There were lights as I remember it being quite dark. In Hebi he seemed to know everyone. He was always calling in favors rather comically. He’d introduce various men and women to me and we’d all sit round dinner with him talking 90% of the time. There would be lots of shots of alcohol (baijiu). There would be strong encouragement to dig into the food. Looking back now, I think Popo, in his own way, was actually quite progressive in a way that I strive to be now. Of course I was able to recognise this in him at the time (I wouldn’t have been able to verbalise it of course at the time). Popo wanted to improve the society around him. He wanted to keep the peace between people, he wanted progression, he wanted to make money (to afford the luxuries of life). I wouldn’t say I looked up to him in the way I looked up to others in my past. But I certainly liked him and his company. 

Popo was mad about Chelsea football club, he told me he had the dream of going to Stamford Bridge one day.

Unfortunately I lost touch with him. I hope one day to see him again in his corner of the world.