Photo of Linden

When many businessmen in China use some new models in marketing efforts like livestreaming to save their business amid the COVID-19, Brian Linden, an American who is operating a hotel that was renovated from four Chinese cultural heritage sites in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, enjoys this special leisure time with the local community, restoring the old buildings and developing his painting skills.

“Rather than sitting behind the computer right now and thinking about how I can maybe get a little bit more business, I would prefer to think about how this house, how these buildings will last another hundred years,” Linden told the Global Times on Thursday.

Business during virus outbreak

Linden settled down in Xizhou town, Dali city in Yunnan Province with his wife and two sons in 2005, and he founded the Linden Center, a hotel with the characteristics of Bai ethnic minority group. He took about an average of about three years to renovate each of the four old building in partnership with the local government.

Lind said about 95 percent employees in the hotel are locals, but due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the hotel closed on January 25, and most of them chose to stay at home and spend time with their family. 

“We are still paying them and they can have the option of working or they can choose to receive basic salary and take a break,” he said.

Linden said he and his employees are quite busy all year round. Although the hotel’s shut down might cause some financial lost, Linden said he thought he finally has a chance to own his private time and enjoy his life.

“For me, that is a different type of business value. And I am confidence competent business will return. But at the same time I have time off right now, I would like to do some restoration to the old buildings and ensure that our future generations will be able to benefit from them as well.”

Linden said he is investing his own money to make sure that the center is taken good care of, and he might reopen his hotel in late April, and hold some special events for the local community and people from the big cities that have been stuck at home for three months to help them find relief from the shadow of the virus. 

He added that the pandemic gave him an opportunity to watch how the Chinese government, his partners, interact with the local community. “Never have they asked me to cut or fire any staff to tell them to go. What I see in China is a government is thinking and trying some way about what is going to have the biggest impact on the community.”

However, Linden shows his sadness that many people in the US might not believe his stories, and he hopes they could come to China to see the real Chinese situation. “I was here to do something that I felt if I was a good model, and it would influence foreigners to look at China in a different way,” he said.

A good model

Linden set up the business with the goal of creating a new model to provide a platform that allows people from all over the world to see the country’s well-rounded side rather than the common scene in the big cities. 

“I felt that in some way too many foreigners are unwilling to move beyond the comforts that China has created in the big cities, and they were isolated or removed from what really made China special,” he said, and pointed that what makes China special is its 5000 years of accumulated knowledge, and the rural areas is something that worth studying and exploring. 

The beautiful natural scenery in Xizhou and the hotel’s socially driven and authentic values made it gain a high popularity among many foreign visitors and also attract many topped schools mainly in China and the US coming here for some education projects.

According to Linden, the top schools in the US did not choose to make education exchange programs in the universities in Beijing nor Shanghai but came to the small villages in Xizhou because they believe there has a value of Chinese culture and getting away from the urban environment is worth it.

He noted three quarters of the students who came to the rural China will have an open moral and a much more balanced view of China. 

“Some of them will someday be in the American leadership, and when they look back their experience here, they would always have a strong feeling for China. This is something that I’m very proud of. I feel that we should share China’s soft power in a very authentic and a very soft way,” he said.

He added it is also very important for Chinese people and community to see there are many foreigners who also respect China, are proud of China and want to be a part of China.

Communication bridge

Linden expressed his center is not just some repaired old buildings, but has a soul, spirit and social value that he devoted all his time and money. He said the center is a bridge connecting the communication between China and the US.

“I will try to promote understanding between different cultures. I believe this is because of what China has given me this opportunity, the support from the government and the friendship of so many of my Chinese friends. I believe my time is best spent focusing on trying to help the world see a different part of China.”

Linden pointed that hiding from each other and calling people names is not going to help anyone amid the pandemic.

“What I want the world to see is that we are still very positive. Never did I think about leaving China for my health reasons for anything. And we are a part of China and we were going to stay there.”

News showed the pandemic has sparked some discrimination against Asians in the world including the US. Linden said he was a bit of worried that his two sons studying in the US might suffer discrimination due to identification of his Chinese American wife.

“I believe that this is not something that the world should be critical of, but somehow we should be trying to work together… I believe that the only way for us to get beyond racism is to have people promote exchange and stay strong,” he said.