With different cultural backgrounds and different modes ofthinking， is there any need to adjust their way of life when meetingrelatives from their respective families， even if the couple loves eachother dearly? “Of course there is，” said Eric when asked. “They havedifferent ways of expressing feelings. The Americans are a little morestraightforward and the Chinese have a somewhat soft and warm way.
I can’t really say which way is better.” He appreciates the Chineseconsideration shown for others and also favors the independence ofAmericans. He and his wife take good， but not routine， care of eachother. Now Eric can automatically “switch over” between the two cultures，treating American in the American way and Chinese in the Chineseway. “This ‘switchover’ is not hypocritical，” Eric emphasized. “Iuse these two styles sincerely， and they come from the bottom of myheart. That accounts for the ease with which Eric switches between twodifferent cultures.
An Exotic Mottled BambooAfter graduating from CUN， Eric worked as an editor for two yearsat That’s Beijing an English daily-life magazine. The work load wasquite heavy. In addition to his responsibilities as an editor， Eric had toconduct one or two interviews for each issue.
Interviewing is a difficult job. First， to make an appointment byphone is a critical hurdle and Eric finds it daunting. It is a problem becausethese interviews are set up by phone — a most difficult task forforeign students of the Chinese language. The difficulty lies in the factthat in a face-to-face conversation， a person’s body language and facialexpressions help convey even the subtlest of meanings. Even if youcan’t understand a word or two， you can get the basic gist of the conversation.
Over the phone， you lose those advantages as you can’t seethe other person. If your hearing comprehension wasn’t good enough，you were going to be in trouble. However， as he interviewed dozens ofpeople ranging from officials to scholars to artists， the timid beginnerwas even able to “fool” the people he was setting up interviews with.
As long as the conversation on the phone was kept short， the otherparty had no idea he wasn’t Chinese. Image the surprise of the personbeing interviewed upon discovering that they had been speaking to aforeigner.
His career as a free-lancer began after two years in the editingjob. Out of his love and understanding for the Chinese culture， he wasdetermined to do something for East-West cultural exchange with hismastery of the language.
He found great pleasure and interest in the Chinese internet. Twoyear ago， with help from the Chinese writer Xu Xing， Eric registeredat the well-known Chinese literary forum “Reading Life”。
“I don’t know if I was the first foreigner frequenting the Chineseforum，” said Eric. “But I am sure nobody knew I was a foreigner fora long time.” In addition to his Chinese name “Tao Jian （his Chinesebuddies shortened “Tao Jianyou” because they thought it didn’t quitesound right）， Eric has another name — the aforementioned “Suo Zhuzi — that was thought up by his wife. Hoping their boys to grow upstrong and sturdy， Chinese farmers would give their kids names suchas “Suo Zhu” or “Zhuzi” meaning Lock or Pillar. Along with such arural name as Suo Zhuzi， and his smooth Chinese writing， Eric “fooled a large contingent of netizens. Through his own postings and the readingof other’s posts on the forum as well as rich vocabulary encounteredwhile surfing the internet， Eric furthered his Chinese culturalattainments with each passing day.
