Chinese teacher visits Shakespeare's hometown

Li Jing'ang says his visit to Shakespeare's hometown was his dream come true. Zhang Yue / China Daily

It was a rare sunny day when 57-year-old Li Jing'ang arrived at Stratford upon Avon in the United Kingdom. The town is the birthplace of William Shakespeare, regarded as the greatest British writer and dramatist in the 16th century and Li's favorite literary master.

Along with some 30 tourists from China on April 4, Li was gently holding his breath as he walked through the wooden house where Shakespeare once lived. He was amazed that the house was so well preserved.

For Li, this moment was his "dream come true". Li, a former English teacher from a county in Shandong province, became a popular figure in the country in 2013 for collecting trash in Beijing and chatting to foreigners in fluent English and eagerly teaching pedestrians oral English.

"I started to read Shakespeare's work in my late 20s. I was a public servant in a township in Shandong then," he says. "I read his original works of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet with the Chinese translation on the opposite page. These two are my favorites. I love his tragic stories more than the comedic stories, because they enlightened my pondering on life."

He still easily recalls the well-known quotations, like: "To be or not to be, that is the question."A series of coincidences led to Li's visit to Shakespeare's hometown, his first trip abroad. Back in Oct 17, 2013, Li was working as a dustman in central Beijing and became famous on social media when he chatted freely in English to a foreigner in the Nanluoguxiang area. Li's simple appearance combined with his fluent spoken English impressed many people who left their compliments online.

What surprised many people is that Li came to Beijing on his own and worked as dustman because he was eager to speak to foreigners in English. For the past two decades, Li has watched English news on TV and read English newspapers to improve his language skills.

Two weeks later, Li was invited to appear on the Chinese Dream Show by Zhejiang TV Station, a very popular charity-themed program that focuses on helping grassroots people to fulfill their dreams. When it was Li's turn onstage, he told the audience that his dream was to pay a visit to Shakespeare's hometown.