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Special> 60th Anniversary of The People's Republic of China> Famous Foreigners
UPDATED: September-22-2009
Lisa Carducci: Finding Home at Last
The Canadian writer sees China as her home

Lisa Carducci attends a conference celebrating the 60th anniversary of China International Publishing Group in Beijing on September 4, 2009 (SHI GANG) 

On Lisa Carducci's desk, a framed front cover of Beijing Review, a weekly magazine published in many languages, features the Canadian writer dressed in bright red, holding a small card in front of the five-star flag of China.

The photo was taken on March 16, 2005, when Carducci became one of the first 12 foreigners to obtain the Beijing Permanent Residence Card, nicknamed China's "green card". In 2001, she was also granted the Friendship Award, the highest honor the Chinese government grants foreigners who have made great contributions to the country.

The front cover, however, is a mock-up made by her colleagues. "It was a very meaningful event," recalls Yu Hong, who worked with Carducci when she started with the French edition of Beijing Review and Chinafrica, a monthly magazine.

"Lisa is an outstanding staff member, she would never leave any questions unanswered. She often called the African embassies to check facts," Yu recalls. Gong Jieshi, an editor with the Foreign Languages Press, agrees. "You can say she is a workaholic. There is nothing but work for her," Gong says.

Recently, Foreign Languages Press published English and French editions of Carducci's These Wonderful People of Xinjiang, a book detailing the writer's travels through the northwestern region.

Among Carducci's 44 books, 37 were published in the past 17 years after she came to China, when she worked first as a university teacher of French and Italian, then as language consultant with China Central Television, and finally an editor, translator and columnist with Beijing Review.

Carducci has just returned from a 5-week trip to Ningxia Hui autonomous region, where she was deeply impressed by efforts to curb desert expansion. She now plans to travel to Guangxi, Inner Mongolia and Tibet, the other three Chinese autonomous regions.

Carducci retired last year. "I feel very free, very happy. I choose what I want to do. I could not stay without working, and it keeps me aware of Chinese news," says Carducci in her apartment near the Capital Airport.

When she first came to interview two artists in 2002, Carducci was fascinated by the red iron railings and tailor-made pine furniture. "I loved it at first sight," she recalls, "and wanted to live here." It just so happened that the artists were selling their apartment, then surrounded by quiet, green farm fields.

Today, planes rumble by every 3 minutes or so. Downstairs, her neighbors are enlarging their garages, taking out walls and columns. Despite her complaints, including letters to the local government, Carducci firmly regards the place where she raised 16 birds and grew 165 pot plants as her real home.

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