A trailblazer's love for China continues for decades

Editor's note: China Daily presents the series Friends Afar to tell the stories of people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. Through the vivid narration of the people in the stories, readers can get a better understanding of a country that is boosting openness.

For the past four decades, David Edgren and his family from the United States have found themselves closely tied to Taiyuan, a city in North China's Shanxi province.

Their link with the provincial capital can be traced to a day in 1984, when 13-year-old Andy Edgren of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, returned home from summer camp.

"We're moving to China," his father David, then 42, announced to the children. Andy and his younger brother Jon were stunned as their younger sister Emily was just a toddler.

David had completed a PhD in educational management at Pennsylvania State University. He and his wife Kathy, who studied at the Complutense University of Madrid, were curious about China and eager to experience it firsthand.

David had received an offer to teach at the School of Foreign Languages of Shanxi University in Taiyuan. During that time, many people in the US found the idea of working in China unfamiliar.

The two countries officially established diplomatic relations in 1979. Andy was born in 1971, the year before then US president Richard Nixon visited China — putting in motion the political detente that ensued.

News of the Edgrens' move spread throughout their community. A local newspaper, The Patriot-News, ran a story headlined "Educator will teach in China" and highlighted how David Edgren had resigned from his $43,000 job to teach in an obscure Chinese city that few people in the US would have heard of.

The Edgrens turned out to be trailblazers who paved the way for many other US travelers to China. David Edgren has since been to China more than 40 times, helping more than 50 people from the US to travel, study and teach in the country.

Taiyuan is an industrial center with leading sectors in energy and heavy chemicals. When the Edgrens moved there, the city's nascent development was growing rapidly amid the country's reform and opening-up, which spawned a strong demand for English-speaking experts.

Kindness and warmth

"The weather was cold, the apartments were small, and there were frequent power and water cuts, but the kindness and warmth of the people moved me the most," David said of those days.

The family initially planned to stay for a year but after they returned to the US, David longed to be back in Taiyuan. He returned to Shanxi University to teach in 1989, this time with hearty approval from all three of his children.

"The university arranged for my wife and me to teach different grade levels," David said. "If I had classes from 8 to 10 am, my wife would teach from 10 to 12 am. This way, it didn't affect our teaching or our ability to take care of our young daughter. It was a very thoughtful arrangement."

The Patriot-News also reported on the Edgrens' return to China.

"They got hooked on the place," the newspaper reported. "To them, China is a place where a person can walk anywhere, day or night, without fear … This, then, is what China was to them: safe, crime-free, secure, over-friendly to Americans."

Years later, when Andy Edgren turned 18, he decided to postpone going to college and chose to accompany his parents in China, teaching at the English department of Shanxi University and an affiliated high school.

Reflecting on the time spent with his students, Andy, now 53, voiced deep and heartfelt gratitude.

"The students not only improved their English skills, their understanding of the world also broadened. And I, too, gained so much from the experience."

David and Kathy's work in China impacted more than 300 Chinese students. A number of their former students have become key faculty members at prestigious universities, others have excelled in business and some have worked outside China.

Andy, who has 2 million followers on short-video streaming platform Douyin, announced last year that 80-year-old David was visiting China again. They embarked on a three-generation journey last year with Andy's eldest son, Micah, 21.

This June, David and Andy came to China again and visited a new language education center at Shanxi University, where English listening materials, once delivered through cassette tapes, have been replaced by multimedia resources.

On David's last day in China before returning to the US, his former students asked him to give them one more lesson in the same classroom where he taught them over 30 years ago. David entered the room and readily recognized the students.

"My dad always said, 'China is in our blood, China is in our hearts'," Andy said.

Educational and cultural exchanges between China and the US are critical, he said. He continues to tell people in the US that if they wish to know about China, they should visit the country and experience it for themselves.

Duan Jichu contributed to the story.