Wǒ Men Podcast: A Very Special Christmas Episode

12/24/17 • 26 min

2017 was an amazing year. With so much support from our family, editors (Josh and Anthony, we mean you) and friends, we finally launched our Wǒ Men Podcast, a program that we have been thinking about doing for years.

It has been a magical journey. Every single guest was so generous and kind to open up and share their thoughts and lives with us. In that small studio, we had many deep conversations, touching the part of our hearts that we usually only keep it to ourselves. We feel we know each us so much better, even though many of the guests have been long-term friends.

We also really appreciate all the feedback and support we honorably received from our audience. Whenever we heard how our program helped them to know China better or inspired by the thoughts from the guest speakers, we just feel so happy and encouraged. This is what keeps us going!

Our editors Anthony and Josh are so amazing. Anthony introduced our program to the platform Radii and Josh gave us helpful feedback and provided all the support that we needed.

We also want to thank our lovely husbands who have been our biggest supporters behind the scene since day one. Yajun’s husband Jeremiah came up with the brilliant name of the podcast and also was our CTO and IT advisor (unpaid). Jingjing’s husband Nick contributed many great ideas on titles and was the source of ideas for many discussion topics. More importantly, both of them bore the noise during the editing on many days and nights. Nick once mentioned that he could only handle our loud laughter so many times on each night.:)

Last but not least, despite being friends for years, we have never been so close ever since we started planning for this podcast. We continuously brainstorm and feed ideas to each other, we discover similarities and differences between each other and keep each other encouraged and inspired.

God, this blurb turns into a long list of appreciation and becomes so cliché. However, if you don’t show your gratitude to the people you care during such a warm holiday season, when is a better time?

So to celebrate this wonderful time of the year, we issued our special Christmas episode of the Wǒ Men Podcast and shared our personal Christmas experiences. Hope this installment will bring some joy and laugh on this beautiful Christmas Eve.

Happy holidays and see you in 2018!

Our editors Anthony and Josh are so amazing. Anthony introduced our program to the platform Radii and Josh gave us helpful feedback and provided all the support that we needed.

Happy holidays and see you in 2018!

Previous Episode

Wǒ Men Podcast: Follow Your Heart

Along our career paths, we face so many challenges and choices.

How can I make the best decisions for myself? This is a question that bothers us for the majority of our youth. Growing up in the ’70s, ’80s or even ’90s, we don’t have role models for career development.

Looking back, our parents’ generation — who received professional training under China’s planned economy — was very much used to the idea of going to work from 8 am to 5 pm, and believed in doing the assigned job diligently. They were not aware of the difference between a job and a career.

In addition to that, working overtime was an alien idea to them: why should one work so hard for their employers, as it is the employer who benefits, not each individual?

Our generation grew up in a reformed China, where more job opportunities had been created, new industries were developing, and Western values like “career development” had flooded in. However, we are pretty much on our own to navigate these changes, and learn how to build our careers.

Jackie You

Without realizing it, we’ve stepped on a career development treadmill, where we believe the only direction to go is forward. As we march ahead and grow older, we accumulate more and more baggage — families, mortgages, and children’s tuition all become factors dominating our career choices. Is that the only path we’re destined to take? Is there another option?

Jackie You’s response to this questions is clear and sound: No, don’t let these factors affect your choices. You should follow your heart!

Jackie is an ex-investment banker, former CFO of a US publicly listed company, and an entrepreneur. On our latest episode, Jackie uses her personal experience to explain why your heart knows better than your mind when it comes to certain life choices — according to her, when your heart points you in one direction, you should just go with it.

Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.

Have thoughts or feedback to share? Want to join the discussion? Write to Yajun and Jingjing at [email protected].

Next Episode

Wǒ Men Podcast: Be Your Own Mulan

Mu Lan, an ancient Chinese heroine, became globally famous thanks to Disney’s awesome animated film. Arguably, she is one of the most popular Asian figures in global cinema, besides Kung Fu Panda, Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan.

For most women in China, Mu Lan probably lives only as an on-screen character. But our guest today, Lila Stange, feels related to this figure in a very personal way.

Mu Lan pretended to be a man in order to become a soldier and take her father’s place on the battlefield, later becoming a general and finding a completely different life. Lila’s life shifted in a similarly dramatic way — from being abandoned as a baby in the small town of Fuzhou in China’s Jiangxi province to being adopted by a lovely American couple and a happy family in Boise, Idaho, in the early ’90s.

Unlike many adopted children, Lila knew growing up that she was adopted, and where she was born — it was never an issue for her. On the contrary, she directly embraced her Chinese identity. She is one of very few Asian people living in Boise, Lila’s parents made an effort for their daughter to keep in touch with her Chinese traditions: they celebrated Chinese New Year and other festivals. Lila has been curious about her Chinese identity, and bravely exploring it — she came to China to study Chinese, and later returned for work. It’s been a special journey, she says, though not always a rosy one.

Today, Lila joins us to tell her story and share her amazing life adventures. As she says: she wants to be her own Mu Lan.

Previous episodes of the Wǒ Men podcast can be found here, and you can find Wǒ Men on iTunes here.