Francis Fremont Smith is Executive Director at the United Foundation for China’ Health.

今天我们精短听力的主人公Francis Fremont Smith 女士是北京和睦家中国医疗基金会的现任执行董事。

Her China story goes back many years, to the time US President Nixon made his historic visit in 1972. Inspired by the future relationship she could see between both countries Fran decided to study Chinese. Starting first at the Connecticut College on Chinese and Asian Studies she moved to Hong Kong in 1978 on a Yale China Program to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

今天我们要听到的她的中国故事要追溯到1970年代。1972年美国尼克松总统访华实现了中美关系正常化，改变了当时中国和美国的外交格局，甚至国际关系格局，堪称世界外交史上的重大事件。也激励了许多美国年轻人对中国和中国文化的浓厚兴趣。Francis就是其中的一员，她被中美关系的长远合作的未来所激励，于是开始学习中文及亚洲学，从语言及文化全面学习，亲近中国。1978年她随着耶鲁大学的访问项目来到了香港生活学习。

She came to China, walking across the border at Lo Wu – there were no through trains and also no Shenzhen like we know today! Her travels took her up to Hangzhou, Beijing and on to Changchun where she taught English. After two years Fran moved down to Beijing, where she worked at the Academy for Agricultural Mechanization Sciences. She also worked part time at a branch college of then Foreign Languages Institute. It was then that life for Fran really changed – she met her husband there! A Chinese national, he was teaching English at the school.

越过边界，她从香港来到了中国内地，那时尚无京九线，甚至连深圳的概念都还没有呢。她乘坐火车一路北上，从杭州、北京一路辗转到达长春，留在那里从事教学。不久以后，她定居北京，在中国农业机械化科学研究院工作，同时也在北外兼职教书，不曾想到，在这里，她遇见了她同为高校教师的先生，Fran的人生自此改变。

Their relationship – one of the earliest Chinese-foreign marriages of that period. As this was a time when there were very few westerners living and working in China, there were problems and challenges on both sides, which they successfully overcame.

70年代末80年代初的中国，在京的外国人可谓寥寥可数，跨文化婚姻更属罕见，人们以异样的眼光打量着每一对中西结合的伉俪，面对各种意想不到的困难挑战，Fran仍坚定地选择了缔结一段中国真情。

Their marriage was documented by the National Geographic in one of their TV series called ‘Four Americans in China’. Fran’s programme was a love story, ‘The Teacher who falls in Love’! She had found two loves – her husband and China!

Fran的中国婚事更被国家地理频道制作成了纪录片《四个在中国的美国人》。Fran这一集讲述了一个美好的爱情故事。如今回想当年，Fran毫不后悔当初不远万里，执意远嫁中国的选择。一个女人终于找到她人生中的两个最爱：她的先生和中国，还有什么比这更幸福的事。