Jelena Gavrić, from Serbia, spent seven happy years in China, from 2014 to 2021. She graduated from Beijing Film Academy with a master's degree in directing film and television advertisements in July 2020. She returned to Serbia in October 2021. Jelena plans to return to China next year. "My dream is to become a director in China," she says.

My Chinese name is Ye Lianna, which is transliterated from my Serbian name, Jelena. I was born in the 1990s in Novi Sad, Serbia. I speak fluent Serbian, English, Chinese and Russian, and I'm currently learning Spanish and Korean by myself. 

My "love story" with China started when I was about 12 years old. One day, I watched TV at home, randomly changed the channel and was suddenly attracted by a TV drama scene where the actors spoke a language that I never heard. I asked my father what language was that, and he said it might be Chinese.

Sometimes, those tiny moments that happen in people's lives can be life changing. My life was changed by watching the Chinese TV drama. It was a martial-arts drama, Wind and Cloud. The plot, language, costumes and the traditional Chinese architecture impressed me a lot. 

I instantly fell in love with China and Chinese culture. That was the moment when I decided to go to China, the mysterious Oriental country, someday. So, my first step was to learn the language. 

Although my parents thought my idea was just a whim, they supported me in learning Chinese. My father bought me a Chinese dictionary and a sound recorder to record the TV drama. I was obsessed with the drama, and I listened to my recorder almost every day. 

We had a Chinese store in the neighborhood. Since I was obsessed with everything related to China, I asked the owner whether she could lend me VCDs with Chinese songs and/or TV dramas. The girl was more than happy to hear that someone was so deeply in love with her motherland, so she gave me lots of CDs and DVDs with popular Chinese TV shows and music . That's how I got into Chinese pop music and my favorite singers such as Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai, JJ Lin and Nicholas Tse.

My family thought learning Chinese was difficult, but I had my own way of studying. I copied the lyrics of Chinese songs in an exercise book, and then I looked up every word in the dictionary to find out how to pronounce it, and what it meant. The first Chinese characters I learned to write were the ones in the name of the TV series, Wind and Cloud.

In 2008, I watched the Beijing Olympic Games on television, at the Chinese store. I cheered with the Chinese when the Chinese athletes achieved good results. 

The next year, the store's owner suggested I use QQ, an instant messenger, and Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, to learn more about China and Chinese people. I followed his advice, and I established my accounts on the two platforms, where I made new friends and felt like I was a step closer to China. 

I enrolled in a prestigious language high school with Chinese language as my major, and won third place in a Chinese-language contest during my first year.

In 2014, I passed the Chinese Proficiency Test HSK 5, and I received a scholarship to study at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), in Beijing, capital of China. I was thrilled when I realized my dream of going to China. 

In the autumn of that year, I finally stood on the land of China. It was the first time that I had traveled so far away from my hometown by plane. I felt like I had traveled from the ancient China in the films and TV dramas to a modern China in reality. 

I made many Chinese friends at university, and I also participated in various activities on and off campus. During vacations, I used my scholarship to travel to various parts of China, to experience the charm of Chinese culture and customs. My visit to Xi'an, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, left a deep impression on me. When I visited the ancient town in Xi'an, I felt I was wandering in a costume 
drama, which I had watched before in Serbia. 

Once, one of my friends told me students of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology were looking for foreign models. I applied and passed the interview. I was happy to present the students' creations during the show, and that was a pleasant experience for me. 

During my last year at BLCU, I decided to apply for the master's degree program in directing at Beijing Film Academy (BFA). 

The reason I wanted to study directing was that I understood that film and television played an important role in promoting cultural communications and people-to-people exchanges. I wanted to work as a director in China's film and television industry, and to play a part in promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and Serbia. 

In 2017, after several months of hard work, I passed the entrance exam, and I became the only foreign student in the class. That was a totally different experience for me at BFA. At BLCU, overseas students attended classes separately from Chinese students. But at BFA, I had more opportunities to mingle with Chinese classmates. We studied and worked on our homework together. 

While I was a student at BFA, I generally shot advertisements and short films. I was fortunate to get the opportunity to participate in the production of some films, and to meet famous director Hark Tsui. I watched many of his martial-arts films when I was a teenager. 

I started shooting short videos for Chinese video platforms in 2020 to record my life in China. In March 2020, I was deeply affected when I watched on the news that China sent a medical team and donated medical materials to help Serbia fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. I recorded a short video to express my gratitude to China, and the Chinese people, for supporting Serbia. I uploaded the video on several social-media and short-video platforms, including Douyin, Weibo and Bilibili.com. 

The video went viral. It was viewed more than 1.34 million times on Bilibili.com, and it received nearly 170,000 likes and 13,000 comments on Douyin. That encouraged me to keep shooting short videos, on various topics. Now, I have a combined nearly 200,000 followers on Douyin, Weibo and Bilibili.com.

I enjoy shooting short videos; it is not just a hobby, but a part of my lifestyle. Through sharing my short videos online, I have made many Chinese and Serbian friends, and I have also played a positive role in enhancing friendships and communications between Chinese and Serbians. 

At present, I work as an interpreter at a Chinese company in Serbia. I keep shooting short videos, during my spare time, and I share the videos online to help Chinese netizens better understand my home country. 

My passion for China has influenced my friends and family members. One of my younger brothers, Danko, has developed a great interest in China, and culture. He was admitted to Fudan University, in Shanghai, in September 2021, to study Chinese language and literature. He works part time as a model. 

In my eyes, China is a country that combines tradition and modernity harmoniously. My dream of becoming a film director in China has never changed, and I am planning to return to China next year. I will work hard to achieve my dream. 

Photos Supplied by Jelena Gavrić

(Women of China English Monthly April 2022 issue)