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rfmcdonaldIn the Saturday edition of The Globe and Mail, Jan Wong interviewed (on page M3, "The Communist cadre on the Bridle Path") Chen Xiaoling, Consul-General of the People's Republic of China. The Toronto consulate serves the consular district of Ontario and Manitoba, apparently one of the busiest overseas missions of China: "By [Chen's] account, 550,000 ethnic Chinese live here, nearly half of all Chinese in Canada and one of every seven Torontonians. Last year, her staff issued 64,000 visas, twice the volume five years earlier."
The most interesting aspect of the interview is Chen's own biography: a Maoist who, at the age of 17, was sent to labour in the countryside; a student who, despite suffering from tuberculosis, graduated at the top of her class at the Foreign Languages Institute thanks to reel-to-reel tape recordings; a diplomat who has extensive experience representing the People's Republic throughout the Asia-Pacific region; a person who is the first Chinese consul-general to live on the Bridle Path.
The most interesting aspect of the interview is Chen's own biography: a Maoist who, at the age of 17, was sent to labour in the countryside; a student who, despite suffering from tuberculosis, graduated at the top of her class at the Foreign Languages Institute thanks to reel-to-reel tape recordings; a diplomat who has extensive experience representing the People's Republic throughout the Asia-Pacific region; a person who is the first Chinese consul-general to live on the Bridle Path.
