Hangzhou – When Adikin Rose Mary, of Uganda, married a Chinese man and settled in a Chinese village eight years ago, everything seemed strange to her.
Now, she is no different from the local wives, speaking fluent Mandarin and cooking authentic Chinese dishes. Her social media videos recording her daily life have become a hit on the internet.
Rose's videos are mostly about her cooking for her husband and son in Yecun Village, in Lishui city, in east China's Zhejiang Province.
She often shows the whole cooking process, from the field to the table, and cooks all kinds of dishes, from hotpot and Peking duck to soup dumplings.
In her videos, she interacts with her family and neighbours in Mandarin with a local accent.
The mouth-watering dishes, the countryside sceneries, lifestyle, and the uniqueness of Rose's identity have made her videos a hit on the internet.
@roseinchina1 My first swimming crab meal of the autumn, let’s stir-fry the crabs with rice cakes #chinesefood #recipe #countrygirl ♬ original sound - Rose Anzai
Since July last year, when she posted her first video, she has won 11 million followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
“I just wanted to give it a try at the beginning. And I did not expect that I could win so many followers!” she said.
Rose, 29, was born and grew up in rural Uganda. Eight years ago, she contacted a Chinese man, Wu Jianyun, online after Wu's cousin, who was working in Uganda, introduced them.
After getting to know each other, she made a courageous decision – to travel to China. Later, Rose and Wu fell in love and decided to marry and start a family in Wu's home town, Yecun Village.
In the beginning, life was not easy for Rose. She could not speak Mandarin well, and her husband had to work in the city to earn money.
Gradually, she became fluent in the language and made friends with her neighbours.
@roseinchina1 It’s my birthday! Thank you all for supporting my in the past year. #countrylife #birthdaygirl #foodietiktok ♬ original sound - Rose Anzai
Wu once worked as a chef, so Rose learnt her cooking skills from him. Inspired by China's booming short video market, she decided to share her life and cooking online.
Rose's videos have been drawing floods of positive feedback from internet users.
“It seems as if Rose is a local woman. From her videos, we enjoy the beauty of life, appreciate the delicacies, and learn how to cook,” said one of her followers.
At present, Rose has a 5-person team for the filming, and her husband has returned home to join her in making short videos.
During the past eight years, Rose has also witnessed changes in China's countryside.
“In the beginning, the roads and the villagers' houses were not as good as nowadays,” she said. Most of the men went to work in cities away from home, but the development of rural areas offered chances for young people to work near their homes, she added.
In recent years, in line with China's rural vitalisation strategy, the city of Lishui has been developing countryside tourism and rural industries to help farmers improve their livelihood.
Rose is satisfied with her life and hopeful for the future.
"This is my ideal way of living - the family staying together and our son growing up healthy and happy," she said.
Read the latest issue of IOL Travel digital magazine here.