Irina's and Shi's purr-fect match

By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-16 08:57

Cat woman Irina Makarova has always believed that her beloved felines possessed magical powers that could distinguish between good and bad people. But the young Russian woman never thought these special powers would bring her true love with a wonderful Chinese man.

All the magic began after a class at China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, capital of Hubei where she met her husband-to-be Shi Guohua.

"My kitty was lying on the balcony of my room, when it saw Shi, it came to him, while most of the time it ignored all of my friends," she said. "Then he started patting the kitty, they were like old friends. I thought he loved animals, and my kitty liked him, so he must be a very nice guy."

From that moment on, love was in the air. Shi would save a seat for Makarova at every public class and surprise her with a bouquet of roses at her front door. Like the growing number of flowers in her vase, their relationship bloomed.

"I think the best timing to find the right person is when you are at university. What we had back school was pure love. I like who he was regardless of his background," Makarova said.

Every year, more than 60,000 mixed marriages are registered in China, and these unions can be an issue for some conservative families. However Shi said his parents were very understanding about him dating a Russian girl. But they did lay down one ground rule: She must not be a drug user.

Because Makarova didn't like the weather in Wuhan, they decided to move to Beijing in 2001 and of course the little kitty came along too. The lovebirds bought an apartment in Beijing and registered their marriage in 2004 and now Shi Guohua is an IT manager at a well-known technology development company.

They didn't have a grand Chinese-style wedding ceremony. "We both thought organizing a wedding was too troublesome. Instead, we invited relatives and friends over to have dinner respectively," Shi said.

"Although we are from different countries, both of us are Capricorns. We share similar perspectives toward things."

It took them almost a year to get used to marriage life and cultural difference and experienced quite a lot conflict the first year of their marriage.

Shi Guohua remembers once they had a fight because she was being too direct.

Shi brought his wife to his aunt's home and the elderly woman woke up very early to prepare a big meal for them. But when Makarova saw the salad, she criticized the look and taste.

"My aunt was very embarrassed, but because Irina is a foreigner, so she didn't make a big fuss about it." Shi said. "Sometimes she could be very direct, and I was worried my family couldn't take it."

"Now we know each other well enough and rarely do we have fights." Irina said.

Makorova is a freelance journalist and writes for websites in Russia but she is very selective about who she write for. Once a website contacted her and wanted her to write stories for them but after she researched this site she discovered most of the stories were vicious and made defamatory statements about China.

Without any hesitation, she refused their big paycheck.

"Sometimes I can't agree with the Chinese way of doing things, and seeing people littering makes me uncomfortable. But I love China, and it's my second home," she said.

And their family is also expanding rapidly: their cat family to be exact. One cat gradually became two, three, now four kittens are living with them.