Jong May, a 23-year-old girl from the US, wearing traditional costume for the Golden Pheasant Dance, welcomed visitors as the town mayor of Wanda Town in Danzhai County.
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Jong May, a 23-year-old girl from the US, wearing traditional costume for the Golden Pheasant Dance, welcomes visitors as the town mayor of Wanda Town in Danzhai County. [Photo by Wen Xinggui / Chinanews.com] |
Around the end of June 2017, Wanda Town in Danzhai County, located at southeast part of Guizhou province, recruited all over the world for a town mayor for the week of Oct 21-27.
The search was successful as the enthusiastic young American girl took on the privilege and responsibility. As the town mayor, her main duty is working as a town promotion ambassador by implementing and sharing the policy she made to support the construction and development of the town.
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Jong May gets the letter of appointment to be the 16th mayor of Wanda Town. [Photo provided by Jong May] |
Before she became the 16th mayor of Wanda Town, the 23-year-old girl already had a connection and interest in China. With her western face and fluent Mandarin speaking abilities, Jong May was a perfect candidate for the job, although be it temporary. She said, "Being a mayor is a rich experience in life, so I came to run for election." Along with her passionate taken on life, she also has a fine sense of humor that everybody loves in the town.
Although Jong May served as a mayor only for a week, she made the most of it and enjoyed it every day. According to her words, sauntering in the town several times every day is the best way to get close to locals. For example, in the afternoons Jong May would dance in the Miao costumes with the girls in the small town and give toast to the visitors.
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Jong May dances in the Miao costumes with the girls in Wanda Town. [Photo by Wen Xinggui / Chinanews.com] |
During her brief stint as mayor, Jong May, not only had fun for herself but fulfilled her tasks to attract visitors and promote Wanda Town.
She did live shows about bullfighting competitions and how to make chicken burgers. She also recorded her experience of making local batik, an ancient paper, through Weibo, short videos, live broadcasts and other forms of publicity. Jong May also showcased a tidbit of her culture by teaching the locals a dance from the US.
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Jong May learns how to make local batik, a textile made by ancient papermaking techniques, and records her experience on her Weibo. [Photo/Jong May] |
Jong May said that she felt she was getting closer to China. Many people walking down the street would cordially call her mayor, which made her feel like a "small official", she admitted jokingly.
Jong May grew up in the US but actually she was born in China. Her parents gave her the name Jong May which sounds like the meaning of China and the US in Chinese, which made her even more interested in China.
After she returned back to the US, Jong May persisted in learning Chinese through watching Chinese costume drama. Because she was interested in traditional Chinese culture and ethnic dance, in her third year of high school, Jong May came to China to study folk dances and choreography. Now she is a graduate student at Communication University of China.
She said, "I used to learn about Chinese culture and dance, but now I want to understand and learn the culture behind the dance."
She said that she copied "Tao Te Ching" for 81 days during her life in school and she found it is filled with philosophical wisdom, which makes her want to know more about the Chinese people's psychology.
