Press
Interview with AFU Thomas
1. What have you been busy with lately?
I’ve been busy promoting my new book written in German, And a Daily Hello from the Tiger Father, in Germany, and accepting a lot of media interviews. I’ve also been shooting videos, and attending many Chinese-German exchange programs at the same time.
2. Tell us about your new book. How did you come up with the idea of writing a book from the perspective of a Chinese son-in-law?
Being a Chinese son-in-law is a very important identity to me. I hope to let my German compatriots better understand Chinese culture and the family life of ordinary Chinese through this book.
For many Germans, China is a relatively alien country, and they find the Chinese culture very interesting. I believe that the Chinese-German love story that I have written will help better acquaint them with the Chinese culture, and provide a window into the life of a compatriot like me in China.
3. You mentioned in your Vlog that you intend to read 25 books this year. Would you care to elaborate? Are there books by Chinese authors?
I read different types of books. The first book I read this year was: Man’s Search for Meaning. It’s a human psychology classic. I love reading books on psychology. I love novels too. The next book I would like to read is the German version of Death’s End by Liu Cixin. Although I’ve never read a Sci-Fi book before, Liu Cixin is very famous in Europe and America now. Moreover, our books are published by Heyne Verlag, so I’m really looking forward to reading his books.
4. What made you think of shooting videos back then? Why do you have so many fans in China?
I started shooting videos because I love creating new things. After the first video, I found out that many Chinese realized that a German like me was completely the opposite of what they had imagined. So they began to pay attention to me.
I’m able to persist in shooting videos for more than three years because I’m really passionate about sharing my life and some of my perceptions on life with others. I really enjoy and am very happy that I can bring joy and positive energy to everyone. I believe that it’s precisely because I am passionate that I can still continue to shoot videos for 10 years.
5. What do you think are the future development trends in self-media?
I think increasingly, people will pay more attention to high quality videos that have positive energy; gimmicky content will be eliminated very quickly. I think the most important principle in self-media is: will people still agree with the content I’ve produced three years from now? Or put another way, as fans age, will they regret having paid attention to me? By then, will they still think I deserved their attention? It’s not: How can I become popular as soon as possible; how can I attract a lot attention quickly? Therefore, I think consistently producing high quality content is key to the development trend.
6. What’s the biggest hindrance you’ve encountered during Chinese-German cultural exchanges?
Hahaha. My wife always tells me that the biggest hindrance is German is too difficult to learn. Actually, Chinese is pretty hard to learn too! Now though, I think that as long as we’re willing to always maintain a communicative mindset, talk with each other, not about each other, language isn’t necessarily the biggest hindrance. More people are learning Chinese and German now. Exchanges in English are fine too. If you really can’t manage, communicate using translation software like what my in-laws and my parents do, plus lots of gestures. Sometimes, I see my in-laws sitting in the garden in our German village, or my own parents sitting in a skyscraper in Shanghai communicating using translation software and gesturing with their hands and feet as well. So I think, as long as you set your mind to it, bridging that communication divide is not as difficult as people think it to be.
AFU Thomas will be speaking at the StoryDrive conference in Beijing (28 May - 1 June 2019).