Terry Crossman has spent 20 years in the city he now calls home
Wearing his bright red armband and speaking fluent Mandarin, from a distance 62-year-old Gao Tianrui could be taken for any regular Chinese man.
But on closer inspection, things are not quite what they seem: Gao’s real name is Terry and he is from the United States. Having lived in Beijing for more than 20 years, Terry Crossman has finally fulfilled his Chinese dream: becoming a public security volunteer. Life as a “Xicheng Dama” has even made him an online celebrity.
Xicheng Dama are volunteers, usually women in late middle-age, who roam the streets of downtown Beijing’s Xicheng district. And now Crossman has joined their club.
In video footage that recently went viral, Crossman said that he initially saw the group as busybodies, but his opinion changed once he was on the inside.
“Gradually I saw that it is a good thing for retired seniors to come out and help others,” he said.
In the footage, he is seen giving tourists directions, getting water for a baby and even helping a neighbor sell yogurt.
“I like helping others,” he said. “I live in the hutong and my neighbors and I usually help each other … This is where I live, where my friends are and where I call home.”
Crossman became interested in Chinese culture as a teenager when he read the Tao Te Ching by Laozi.
At 18, he took a cargo ship to Taiwan to learn Chinese. On the ship the captain suggested that he should have a Chinese name.
“He named me Gao Tianrui, based on the pronunciation of my English name,” he said.
After Taiwan he worked in several places, including New York, Singapore and a 12-year stint in Hong Kong.
Crossman first came to the Chinese mainland in 1981, when he went to Shanghai and Suzhou in Jiangsu province.
“Wherever I went, I had at least 30 people following me, asking about Hong Kong, how much I earned and how I felt about the victory of the Chinese women’s volleyball team,” he said. In 1981, the Chinese women’s volleyball team won the world championship for the first time.
His first visit to Beijing was six years later on business. “There were few cars and lots of bicycles on the roads.”
Crossman and his family moved to Beijing in 1997, when the traffic was heavier and the city busier. “There were only two subway lines, with no air conditioning,” he said.
Since then he has lived and worked in Beijing.
His parents separated when he was young, and he lived in many different places in the US, so he never felt like he had a regular home there.
“I had no hometown in the United States,” he said. “Your home is where your things are. In this sense, Beijing is my home.”
Crossman can make traditional Beijing bean-paste noodles, and when he goes to a restaurant, he orders dumplings, mashed eggplant and fermented bean curd, a traditional Beijing dish.
He can often be found chatting with local people, especially taxi drivers.
“I am more familiar with the lives of taxi drivers than most Beijingers,” he said. “When I see their license numbers, I can tell how many years they have worked.”
With the taxi drivers, he cannot resist talking about politics, sport and the economy.
“They are so knowledgeable,” he said. “I learned many Chinese NBA words from them.”
During his leisure time, Crossman teaches people English. Currently he is helping employees at a cafe near his home, telling them how to say useful words such as “set meal” and “discount”.
In March, Crossman met Liu Xiaoxia. Liu is in charge of a volunteer organization named Lanlifang (Blue Cube) and helped Crossman get into volunteering.
“I was afraid of foreigners in the past because some of them had a bias against China,” Liu said. “Lao Gao was different. He is warmhearted and jovial.” She calls Crossman Lao Gao, his Chinese nickname.
Liu was making a video to promote her organization, and invited Crossman to join in.
From then on, Crossman decided to become a volunteer.
“He asked me to give him a red armband,” Liu said.
The armband is the symbol of the volunteers, and Crossman is proud of his.
“If I become a volunteer, I can make more friends,” he said. “I feel special with the armband.”
However, the seemingly carefree Crossman had one big problem: His visa expired and his company no longer had an office in Beijing, leaving him unable to get a new work visa.
Crossman applied for a student visa and enrolled in a Chinese language course, but that visa will expire next month.
Crossman does not want to leave Beijing.
When he first came to the city there were just two subway lines, by the end of last year it was home to 18 lines with 288 stations.
Crossman finds it hard to say if he prefers the new or the old Beijing.
“In different periods I had different lives: married life, life with children and life alone,” he said. “Now I just enjoy living here.”