Page 19 - The South China Business Journal
P. 19
oto by Kelsey Kremer The Branstads’ daughter Allison and her family —
husband, Jerry Costa, and their daughters, Sophia,
Even in today’s China, an ambassador’s post 7, and Stella, 4 — moved to Beijing to join the
isn’t all about white-knuckle brinkmanship adventure. Allison teaches at an international school.
over trade and nuclear weapons. There’s also
adjusting to life here and embracing the softer The family participated in a video message to
sides of statecraft. spread on WeChat, wishing all 1.4 billion Chinese a
happy Mid-Autumn Festival, the nation’s weeklong
The ambassador’s residence is the site of the fall holiday.
former U.S. Embassy, tucked into a leafy northeast
Beijing neighborhood near Ritan Park where locals The Branstads circled a small table in front of the
play pingpong, scale a giant climbing wall and cameras to taste an array of mooncakes, a seasonal
practice tai chi. Chinese pastry that can be filled with a variety of
sweet or savory ingredients.
Chris Branstad, the ambassador’s wife of 45 years,
got a license and has dared to drive on Beijing’s Sophia and Stella sat on their grandparents’ laps as
notoriously congested roads. perhaps the most disarming tools of diplomacy.
“It’s really not even so much the driving,” she said. Similar to tasting mooncakes, Xi’s visits to Iowa
“It’s the knowing how to get somewhere. I’m a little may have helped to soften his image in America with
technologically challenged, so I need to get a GPS a folksy touch rare for Communist rulers.
or something.”
Yet despite his connections to “Iowa nice” and a
The Branstads are finding ways to adapt their daughter who was educated in the U.S. at Harvard, Xi
most important daily rituals to the Chinese hasn’t lived up to his potential as a “liberal reformer,”
culture. They attend Catholic Mass at the Canadian said David Skidmore, a politics professor at Drake
Embassy. (China has Catholic churches but doesn’t University in Des Moines, who spent much of his
recognize the pope’s authority to appoint bishops, summer traveling and teaching in China.
so the Canadian Embassy draws a faithful flock of
Catholic expats.) South China Business Journal 17
husband, Jerry Costa, and their daughters, Sophia,
Even in today’s China, an ambassador’s post 7, and Stella, 4 — moved to Beijing to join the
isn’t all about white-knuckle brinkmanship adventure. Allison teaches at an international school.
over trade and nuclear weapons. There’s also
adjusting to life here and embracing the softer The family participated in a video message to
sides of statecraft. spread on WeChat, wishing all 1.4 billion Chinese a
happy Mid-Autumn Festival, the nation’s weeklong
The ambassador’s residence is the site of the fall holiday.
former U.S. Embassy, tucked into a leafy northeast
Beijing neighborhood near Ritan Park where locals The Branstads circled a small table in front of the
play pingpong, scale a giant climbing wall and cameras to taste an array of mooncakes, a seasonal
practice tai chi. Chinese pastry that can be filled with a variety of
sweet or savory ingredients.
Chris Branstad, the ambassador’s wife of 45 years,
got a license and has dared to drive on Beijing’s Sophia and Stella sat on their grandparents’ laps as
notoriously congested roads. perhaps the most disarming tools of diplomacy.
“It’s really not even so much the driving,” she said. Similar to tasting mooncakes, Xi’s visits to Iowa
“It’s the knowing how to get somewhere. I’m a little may have helped to soften his image in America with
technologically challenged, so I need to get a GPS a folksy touch rare for Communist rulers.
or something.”
Yet despite his connections to “Iowa nice” and a
The Branstads are finding ways to adapt their daughter who was educated in the U.S. at Harvard, Xi
most important daily rituals to the Chinese hasn’t lived up to his potential as a “liberal reformer,”
culture. They attend Catholic Mass at the Canadian said David Skidmore, a politics professor at Drake
Embassy. (China has Catholic churches but doesn’t University in Des Moines, who spent much of his
recognize the pope’s authority to appoint bishops, summer traveling and teaching in China.
so the Canadian Embassy draws a faithful flock of
Catholic expats.) South China Business Journal 17
