Raj je visoko, car daleko . Zato je danas Kina zemlja u kojoj su ljudi usredređeni na sebe i porodicu “Heaven is high and the emperor is far away“. That’s why today’s China is a country where people are focused on themselves and their families
A ccording to a Chinese proverb “heaven is high and the emperor is far away“. And the most successful Chinese emperors stuck to that. That’s why today’s China is a country where people are focused on themselves and their families. I live in Shanghai, which is a wonderful combi- nation of the old and the new. You have, for example, a lot of European architecture, because the city was given over to foreign rule under concession follow- ing the Opium Wars. Much of the old part of Shang- hai is still called the French Concession, while my dis- trict of Pudong is a brand new financial quarter where the skyscrapers reflect success. Pudong has four mil- lion inhabitants. One of my favourite activities in China is touring the city by bicycle with my daughter and familiaris- ing ourselves with the city, and because Shanghai is so huge our cycling adventure is endless. I used to drive a car, but that’s the slowest and most expensive form of transport in Shanghai. I went to work on an electric motorcycle for years. The Chinese are a lot like us in terms of mentali- ty. They are tempramental and interpersonal relations are extremely important to them. The older genera- tions of Chinese people remember Tito, ’Valter’ and Yugoslavia, with which they identify Serbia the most.
They know a lot about the Serbs because of No- vak Đoković and Bora Milutinović. When I summarise my impressions of my life be- yond my homeland, about leaving for America at the age of 18, about Novi Sad, where I left my parents, my friends, my girlfriend behind... it was very tough for me. And then in America I found a job deliver- ing Chinese food around the city. The owner of the restaurant, a Beijinger and a Master of mathemat- ics, once told me, as I washed dishes and he cooked food for customers, “the first ten years after emigrat- ing are the toughest, after that you get used to it”. A decade! And after two years I thought I would die. And he was right... For many years I only came to Serbia on rare oc- casions. Now I come more often, because my parents can’t travel to China, and I stay longer. My wife and daughter spend the summer here, while I stay a short- er time due to work. We want our daughter to get to know Serbia and to learn a little Serbian. We live in a big, fast-paced city. When we come to Novi Sad it’s as though we’ve come on a spa holiday. I don’t consider returning to Serbia permanently due to nostalgia, but I’ve realised my ambitions, trav- elled, worked, earned, studied and fallen in love on the seven seas and the seven peaks. Where I am doesn’t matter to me, but Serbia is always on my agenda.
WHO’S NIKOLA? Nikola Stanković (44) has lived in Chi- na since 2003. He spent nine years work- ing in Beijing and has been residing in Shanghai for the last four years with his Chinese wife and nine-year-old daugh- ter. He was born and raised in Novi Sad. He graduated in Informatics in Mis- souri and worked in San Francisco’s Sil- icon Valley, then later worked in Hong Kong prior to starting his current job in Shanghai. Nikola is an independent con- sultant on several local projects.
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