A Shanghai native becomes an ad hoc cultural ambassador in Brazil

Life in Brazil is as rich as the country's lush forests and as colorful as its many festivals. Just ask Sun Jia, who was born and raised in Shanghai.

In a decade of living in the South American country, Sun has gone from teaching English to becoming a self-styled cultural ambassador between China and Brazil.

Sun and her husband, a Brazilian native, met while working at a German company in Shanghai.

"In 2013, he proposed to me and asked, 'Would you like to come to Brazil with me?' I said yes," Sun recounted.

The couple and their 4-year-old daughter live in Campinas, a city northwest of São Paulo. They chose the location because of her husband's work, but it has turned out to be a very livable environment, she said.

"It's safer than Sao Paulo and there aren't so many traffic jams here," she said. "It's actually more of a town, with a pretty healthy economy."

Campinas, which means "green fields" in Portuguese, lives up to its name. It is filled with greenery and has little pollution. The climate is also very pleasant. Sun said. She has ditched the antibiotics she used to take in Shanghai for chronic strep throat because the ailment has disappeared.

Sun said she wanted to find a job as soon as they arrived in Brazil, but language was a barrier.

"I submitted my resume to many places but got no response," she said. "And then I went to three or four English schools and told them that I speak English. They all invited me to become a teacher."

She worked as a night-class teacher. During the day she studied Portuguese with a private tutor.

"The wages were very low at that time," she said. "When I first started work, I earned only 18 reais (US$3.20) an hour," she said. "But I didn't want to be stuck at home."

As an English teacher, Sun became acquainted with Carlos Wizard Martins, a Brazil entrepreneur and educator involved mainly in English education businesses. It was a turning point for her.

Martins asked Sun to become his Mandarin tutor, and for the next 10 years, she not only taught him Chinese but also helped design English textbooks for his company and translate books he wrote.

"He even inspired me to start my own Chinese-language school," she said. "He is this kind of person who can push people out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves."

With Martins' encouragement, Sun started to give private tutoring on Mandarin in her home, pasting ads along the street to advertise and find clients. Many people called to sign up for her class.

"I designed my class so that my students could learn 50 sentences in Chinese after just one class," she said.

A Brazilian man who once studied in Beijing contacted Sun to ask if she needed a partner to help run the school online. When the coronavirus epidemic broke out, she spent two years recording her courses on a website called QI China.

Sun said she was surprised how Chinese culture and language are becoming popular in Brazil.

She took a course at a kung fu school run by a Brazilian and later opened a Mandarin class in the school. She was invited by a local music school to teach Chinese and organized her students to sing at events in Chinese communities.

One of her pupils at the music school won first place in a singing competition sponsored by the Beijing Overseas Friendship Association, attracting foreign participants from all around the world.

"The student comes from a needy family that couldn't really afford much education," Sun said. "The music school is run as a charity that doesn't charge tuition. The student is very talented musically, and I am very proud of him."

In the past decade, Brazil and China have grown closer, Sun said. An increasing number of Chinese companies now attend exhibitions in Brazil, displaying products like medical equipment and technology devices.

"Small businesses in Brazil love to go to Chinese suppliers for things like bathroom fittings and interior decor materials," she said. "Some go to China to source products. There are so many manufacturers to choose from. Sometimes I help with translations."

This month Sun has taken up the post of the Executive President of the Chinese Association of Campinas and Region. Sun said that her dream is to open her own bricks-and-mortar school, offering language and cultural courses.

"Brazilians are actually very interested in traditional Chinese arts and music," she said. "I hope that one day more artists from China will come to visit and share their talents with Brazilian people."