(The amusing video of a Pingtan guy / Video: Weng Wucai, Yang Chao, Gao Li)

Nowadays, most people in China may have watched a hot amusing video on Douyin of a young guy working overtime editing sinology posters by using a giant LCD. (Douyin is a creative social app for sharing music videos in China, like Musical.ly and Dubsmash.)

In order to advertise the beauties of Pingtan, the Pingtan Net has set up a Chinese account "中国平潭" in the app and received over 8,790 followers for the moment there.

(Screenshot − the sum of the clicks and likes on the video page / Photo: Ptnet.cn)

On May 31, The First Cross-Straits Lecture for Chinese Traditional Culture Studies will be held at the thirty-fourth building of the Taiwan Innovation Park from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m in Pingtan. The screen installed is just for the lecture. Moreover, Professor Pan Weilian (William N.Brown) from the College of Management from Xiamen University, the first permanent resident from foreign countries ever in Fujian, will give you a lecture then.

(The Cross-Straits Forum for Chinese Traditional Culture Studies / Photo: Ptnet.Cn)

William is an American who came to Fujian since 1988. He has published twelve pieces of works to show the real China to the world and wrote a tutorial for the analysis, design and implementation of corporate strategies. Also, the essence of Military Science of Sun Zi is introduced to the book and modified in accordance with the modern commerce as well. To him, the strategy management of an enterprise is just like making the military strategies, you should grasp the overall situation before starting a war.

(William N.Brown / Photo: Ptnet.Cn)

As a soldier in the Air Force of USA from 1976 to 1978, he once saw an advertising sheet introducing China in Chinese Taiwan, and the sheet had arisen his curiosity then. So he spent over ten years on learning Mandarin and then travelled to Xiamen for the first time.

Pan got his PhD degree and sold all of his belongings in the US at the year of 1988, including a financial corporation that makes more than $700,000 a year. After that, he went to Xiamen, a southeastern city of China, along with his wife Susan and two children. There, he started learning Mandarin in Xiamen University.

Several months later, he was employed as a foreign instructor for students from the MBA Department with a salary of $90 a month at that time, which was a hundred times less than that in the United States. But he didn't mind it and continued with carrying on teaching in the university until now.

Most of his relatives did not support his determination to come to China before he arrived in Xiamen, especially his father, a retired American soldier. As a result, he often wrote letters and drew some pictures to his family each month to share his current goings and real images of China with his families.

William got the permanent residence of China in 1992 and became the first foreign permanent resident ever in history of Fujian. In 1994, he bought a minibus and enjoyed the scenery of almost the whole China with his wife and two sons. They started their journey from Xiamen, and drove all the way for nearly 40,000 kilometres from the east to the west and eventually arrived on Hainan Island in three months.

William is really impressed by the city of Chinese Taiwan as well as its residents. But Fujian is the most attractive province in China to him. To his surprise, the people living opposite to Taiwan across the Taiwan Straits speak the same dialect as the one of southern Fujian. "It's easy to enjoy the same folklore, arts and festivals there as if you were just in Taiwan. Besides, the fishing boats from Taiwan are often anchored in the harbour near the beach of Fujian. Even a joke says the bread made by Fujian taken to Taiwan will never cool after a Taiwan's fisherman return home, for the short distance between Chinese Taiwan and Fujian.

As an honorary resident of Xiamen, William has helped many Chinese cities to win the reputation for "the International Garden City", for instance, Xiamen, Quanzhou, etc. A real China with an exuberant charm is thus presented by him to the people all over the world.

Furthermore, William has written more than ten books over the years, aiming at reproducing the culture and history of China. But this time, he never regards them as the guidance for living in China, because he thinks the life for foreigners in Fujian is now not only for survival, but also for enriching their life.

How to Apply For the Event

The First Method:

Follow the Wechat Official Account of Pingtan (id: zgpt-gov), and then reply a message containing your name and cellphone number. Just like the following format.

Name+Cellphone number , for instance, "Cory+XXXXXXXX"

The Second Method:

Follow @中国平潭 on Weibo.com by visiting the official website of Pingtan's Weibo: http://weibo.com/chinapingtan , and then reply a message containing your name and cellphone number. Just like the following format.

Name+Cellphone number , for instance, "Cory+XXXXXXXX"

Hurry up if you wish to attend the lecture.