Chinese tones

Njeri sang with leading folk music artist Li Guyi in this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala show.

"It was quite crowded the first day, but because of the difficulty of Chinese, only 20 of 60 participants stayed until the last class."

Njeri's patience and persistence in learning Mandarin paid off in April 2006 when Hu Jintao, then China's president, visited Kenya. Because of her progress in Chinese, she was selected from the Confucius Institute to meet him.

"I was quite nervous meeting him, and I heard my voice trembling while talking to him. He is actually a nice person who is very approachable and likes to chat with young people."

Njeri completed her studies at Nairobi's Confucius Institute in June that year and moved to China to pursue a degree in language and literature at Tianjin Normal University a month later.

"I didn't know much before I came here. I thought every girl wore a qipao every day," she says.

With an image of China shaped by a documentary on traditional buildings and martial-arts movies, Njeri was surprised by the country's level of modernity. Seven years on she is now more like a local and has developed interests in traditional Chinese painting and singing.

"I love Chinese traditional painting as I consider it as an elegant thing. The process of doing it is quite peaceful and different from other painting that requires a lot of color. Traditional Chinese paintings can be done with only three tools - writing brushes, an ink stick and xuan paper."

Njeri also appreciates the restrained and graceful style of Chinese folk singing.

"I like singing as I was influenced by my grandma, who is a lively person and quite good at singing," she says. "I remember when I was a child, I was brought by my grandma to sing in the church every Sunday."

Despite her interest in singing and her performance at chunwan, Njeri has no plans to make singing a career.

"It would be under a lot of pressure if I wanted to become famous as a singer, but right now I am quite relaxed and enjoy it as a hobby as I consider people ask me to do something I love."

When her studies end in July, Njeri plans to return to Kenya. In the long term, she hopes to return to China to develop an African street in Beijing where people can experience African food, culture and entertainment.

She also hopes to work in some capacity to connect China and Africa. "Many foreigners in China say they would like to become a bridge to connect two countries, but we need to understand our own culture and Chinese culture in depth," she says. "I have not been home for seven years, and I need to go back and catch up. "

Contact the writer at liaoxue@chinadaily.com.cn.