In front of the curve
Article & photos by Daisy

"我一边吃着饺子和包子, 一边研究老子和孔子. "美国人Andrew幽默的开场白足以显示他的睿智. 带着萌发于青葱时代的对中国文化的热爱, 老人从大洋彼岸来到中国. 十六年来, 他把精力和前沿思想带给了中国的环保和教育事业. "I eat jiaozi (dumplings) and baozi (steamed stuffed bun), while I study Lao-Tse and Kongzi (Confucius)." Andrew Neal Braun chortled while giving this rhymed quip as his life profile.

Drift west to east

It is 42 years ago, when Andrew was a sophomore majoring in Social Science, studied Asian studies with a focus on China. He developed his love for, as he called, the fantastic Chinese culture under the influence of his Chinese philosophy teacher. That was the time even before Nixon decided to visit China and when few Americans would have their eye on the Far East. But Andrew has a sixth sense when it comes to telling the potential hidden inside the sleeping lion. Later, history and the growing importance of the Chinese and American relationship proved that Andrew, who was once identified as a whiz kid, was correct.

American dreamer and wanderer

He traveled around America to earn a living after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. Hard as his life was, the dream of coming to China never left his mind. Twenty six years after he pronounced his first Chinese word, he followed his American dream and came to China.

Though the typical American dream features an affordable home with a backyard swimming pool, year-round barbecues, and a convertible automobile for commuting to a white-collar job during weekdays and going to the beaches for surf parties on weekends, for Andrew, his American dream is about choice, about how you choose to live. Coming to China was the choice he made.

Hainan province was his first destination in China, where he founded the Earth Rescue Foundation, an environmental protection NGO (non-governmental organization) using his parents' inheritance. "I fell in love with Lao-Tse when I first studied his philosophy. Lao-Tse believes that a human being is part of nature, and nature is part of a human being. They are together." This Chinese philosophy profoundly affected his life and became embedded into his belief system.

"The man who is a wanderer and a stranger, he should not be gruff nor overbearing. He must be cautious and reserved. If he is obliging towards others, he wins success. A wanderer has no fixed abode, his home is the road. Therefore he must take care to remain upright and steadfast, so that he sojourns only in the proper places, associating only with good people. Then he has good fortune and can go his way unmolested." These ideas motivated him to make people conscious of their living environment.

At first, he went to the beaches in Sanya with a plastic bag alone to pick up the rubbish. Day after day, gradually, following his example, locals' environmental protection awareness was promoted. His patience and care won the respect, love and trust of the Hainan Government and people. They joined him for the maintenance of the natural environment. Taking the successful experience in Hainan, Andrew went to Shanghai for a high way design in the early 1990s, dealing with where and how to locate it to maximize the benefits and minimize the negative environmental impacts.

Talking about environment, he expressed his recognition and passion for Xiamen as an environmentalist, "Xiamen is good, and the bus system is impressive. I enjoy the ease to travel around here. People are courteous. The traffic pattern is reasonable, as there are few bottlenecks."


▲Andrew loves reading Chinese philosophy books.

A versatile and innovative teacher

Andrew brought along his innovative language teaching style around China as well as his environmental consciousness. He introduced the Rassia teaching style into his oral English classes. "The Rassia's teaching style requires the teacher to be animated and energetic. It sounds crazy, but students love it."

Andrew used to play a German doctor in a 20 episode TV series, The Thunderstorm, adapted from Cao Yu's drama scripts. "You'll be amazed to see that Chinese students are frustrated movie stars and singers." Therefore, he encouraged the students to write their own musical and put on the performance for the final exam, rather than the traditionally paper-based test. His lectures are well received. Rui Chenggang, a well-known financial anchor for BizChina in CCTV-9, a winner of Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum is his proud student. "He is one of my best students just as I am one of his best English teachers when I was teaching at Foreign Affairs University in Beijing." Andrew commented confidently when talking about this prominent student. To further disseminate his teaching techniques, he contributed 5 chapters to the updated speech book edited by Mr. Ji Yuhua, the dean of the Foreign Language department in Tan Kah Kee College, Xiamen University.

Future

Branded a wanderer, Andrew never knows his final destination. He once stayed in Antarctica for 6 months on a national science research. He used to run a hotel at Kohsamui Island, a beach resort in Thailand. "Life is adventurous. The day you stop learning is the day you die." With this faith, Andrew blueprinted his future as traveling around, learning and propagating his pioneering ideas. "People who thought I was crazy are now in their 60s, getting bored with life. They are surprised to see me happy as I am. I was right. I am always in front of the curve."

Vocabulary
chortle 哈哈大笑
quip 妙语
whiz kid 神童
embed 使嵌入
gruff 粗暴的
abode 住所
steadfast 坚定的
sojourn 旅居
unmolested 无忧无虑的
disseminate 传播
propagate 宣传