Editor's Note: The following article was first published on yangse.com. It tells the accounts of a reporter tracking down the recent Weibo phenomenon known as the "pedicab foreigner". It is not the first time in recent months that Chinese netizens have been so taken aback by a foreigner doing something "the old-fashioned way" in China. A few months back, it was the US ambassador to China who was photographed buying his own coffee, carrying his own backpack, and spending time with his daughter (granted it occurred while in transit to China). Chinese have many preconceived notions about how token "rich" foreigners act in China, no doubt fuelled by the ways that many foreigners have acted in the past. But the times they are a-changin', and not everyone settling down in China these days fits the "single businessman" mold any longer. China — meet the environmentalist "hipster".

Back in September, a continuous stream of Weibo posts documented the "strange sight" that appeared every morning on Zhujiang Lu in Nanjing: a foreign man riding one of those Chinese 3-wheeled bikes, known as a pedicab (三轮车). As if this weren't enough on its own to pique locals interest, in tow, sitting on the back of the pedicab were the man's two small girls, both with pale skin and bright blonde hair, along with the foreigner's wife peddling behind them on an old-fashioned Flying Pigeon-style bicycle. Many onlookers immediately took to Weibo to express how captivated they were by the sight of this lovely looking family. Netizens thought the small girls were adorable, and everyone seemed to approve of this foreign family's refreshingly simplistic lifestyle. As curiosity spread online, netizens wanted to know just what was going on. Why was this foreigner biking around on a pedicab? Would he keep biking his kids to school even in the winter? Do foreign parents always take their kids to school like this; is their mentality that different from China's "If you have four wheels, you don't use two" mentality? In order to make sense of the situation, a reporter stopped by Zhujiang Lu on October 27th hoping to "spot" the Weibo-famous family.

Pedicab foreigner and family are a hot topic online

Netizens first started buzzing about this unusual sight in August:

"I don't get it. Are they so poor that they cannot afford some sort of motorised vehicle?"

Soon after, the topic became quite popular, with many netizens voicing that they were pleasantly surprised by this foreigner who was biking his two small girls to school every day:

 "Yesterday, I was in the Jinying Tiandi area and I saw the father buying some shaokao, while the girls sat inside the pedicab. The girls were so cute; they looked like dolls. I think they were Scandinavian!"

 "That foreign man has so much love for his kids."

People were also quite surprised that a foreigner was able to ride such a notoriously difficult to control bicycle:

"I can't ride a pedicab. I've heard that most people who can ride a bike still aren't able to ride a pedicab. I tried once and ended up in the ditch."

"I used to ride a pedicab when I was younger, but I wasn't able to ride it right away. Only after a lot of practice did I get the hang of it."

Moreover, many netizens have readily approved of the foreign family's lifestyle:

"It is so pure; it's good for the environment, it's good for the body and it saves money... I hear my coworkers talking about their children in kindergarten and how the parents make derogatory remarks about those who don't drive their children to school… the children whose parents don't own a car feel inferior."

Some even think that Chinese people could learn a thing or two from this foreigner's lifestyle. However, others believe that this is a typical case of Chinese believing that other countries are better than China:

"If it wasn't a foreigner; if it was a Chinese, no one would be talking about it. Heck, many of us would want the person to be fined for riding a pedicab in the middle of the street!"

"Accidental" meeting with the pedicab foreigner

The reporter arrived at Zhujiang Lu early in the morning to wait for the foreign man to pass by on his pedicab. Sure enough, as expected, the man came peddling by with his two girls around 08:00. When he stopped at a red light, the reporter ran over to him and started talking to him in English. His name was Erik Herrmann, he was 34, and he had recently come from Finland to teach at Nanjing University. Because he was in a hurry, they agreed to meet later that day.

Getting in touch with nature

That afternoon, the reporter went over to Erik's house. He and his wife Angina had just picked the kids up from kindergarten. After some initial reservation and awkward tension, Angina quickly got everyone talking. Erik said that they had lived in Nanjing since May, and that he had moved there to do aerophysics research at Nanjing University. His wife left her job in Finland and now looks after their two girls.

"We bought the pedicab and bicycle so we could take our girls to school. They cost 370 RMB altogether."

They live in Xinjiekou, which is not too far from the kindergarten in Nanjing University, so biking is quite convenient:

"It only takes about 20 minutes to ride there! Riding a pedicab is very cool. I can get some exercise and the kids like to sit in the back."

The way the girls sit in the back, passersby often refer to them as a "mini-parade". Angina thought it was funny the way locals who see them ride by look confused:

"Locals will be walking by, and then suddenly they spot us, and will immediately snap their heads around to watch us go by with a "what the…?" look on their faces."

But do they still take their two girls to school when it is raining outside? Their answer was a resounding "yes".

Erik and Angina aren't worried about their children getting soaked in the rain and catching a cold:

"Rain is part of nature, who cares if you get wet! We should let our kids get in touch with nature."

"When we were living in Finland, even when it was raining outside we would still play outside for four or five hours. As long as the kids want to, we let them play as much as they want to."

They told the reporter that they like being in touch with nature, and that they were trying to create more opportunities for their children to do so:

"What does a child get out of sitting inside of a car? They can't move around, they don't get any exercise and they can't see the world pass by around them."

Source: yangtse
 

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Keywords: Nanjing pedicab foreigner Nanjing foreigner rides pedicab being old-fashioned in China foreign family in China simplistic lifestyle special finnish family in nanjing