Tale of the Tiger Dad

The book was published in Germany in April 2019 by Heyne Verlag, the publisher of Hugo Awardwinner Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem. Derksen's book was popular for its vivid and amusing details about Chinese people and culture, as well as the culture shock he experienced.

"Many German readers like my tiger father-in-law. They say he is very lovely. The story of our marriage sounds true for them and through such a humorous story, they can better understand the German and Chinese cultures,"Derksen says in an interview with China Daily.

The Derksens were interviewed by various German newspapers and appeared on the radio and TV shows, one of which-and arguably the most famous-was Markus Lanz's talk show.

At the show, Zhu Liping was asked some questions based on the book, and one of them was: "If you want to marry a Chinese woman, is the father the most important person?" Liping said in German that, in their family, it was the case.

In another video, Derksen asks his father-in-law in Chinese about his first reaction at their dating.

"I didn't like the idea very much...because you had no money, no apartment and no car. You were just a poor student. How could I like you? I didn't want you to date Jolie (Liping's English name)," old Zhu says.

Derksen says he understands the father because Liping is his only child and he wants her to live a comfortable life. However, after Derksen and Liping had been seeing each other for a year, old Zhu told him that if they love each other, nothing else matters.

"After your hard work, and after often hanging out with you, I got to know you and found you to be a nice person. People need time to get know each other, just like you know me or I know you," old Zhu said.

Knowing and understanding are key to the mixed marriage of Derksen and Zhu Liping. So is the communication between people from different cultures. Despite the convenience of the internet and social media, it is common for people to harbor stereotypical impressions of other countries.

For Derksen, it is common for German people to be viewed as serious, somewhat humorless people by Chinese.

"Why do my Chinese friends all think we don't understand humor? Actually we like telling jokes. Lame ones!" he says.

Derksen's parents, as he writes in the book, believed there was dearth of decent food in China, and since watching a video in which a Chinese couple get married at McDonald's, they were relieved to know there were at least American hamburger restaurants.

However, when they came to China for the first time for their son's Chinese wedding in Shanghai, they changed their minds.