Love between a Dutch aristocrat and a Beijinger spans over 50 years

• Source: Global Times
• [16:18 September 25 2009]
• Comments

Wedding Portrait of Mila and Yang Baolu (China Pictorial)

A Chinese man and a Dutch woman have loved each other for over 50 years in China. They were Yang Baolu, a Beijinger and his wife Mila, a Dutch aristocrat. Yang says, “Although we are old now, our hearts are still as young as before.”

This love story began in the summer of 1956. After graduating from Peking University, Yang worked for the Beijing Electric Machine Factory. One day when he finished his shift, there was a giant downpour. He had to find a bus stop to shelter himself from the rain. This is where he met Mila and they felt in love at first sight.

Mila’s Chinese was already fluent, having already studied the language for three years in the country. “It was raining that day. I held an umbrella to wait for No. 5 bus,” she recalled. “Suddenly, a young man ran into my umbrella, trying to take shelter from the rain. Under the umbrella, we smiled at each other. I had the umbrella, so I gave it to him to go home.”

The second day was a sunny day. Mila, then 22, heard from the neighbors that a handsome young man was waiting for her outside the yard. When she ran out, she saw it was the young man who she helped the day before. Mila’s older sister complained why Mila did not choose other excellent suitors but this poor man.

Mila told her sister, “He is not the person I found, but I met. I think it is romantic.” At that time, Mila was in Beijing with her mother, older sister and step-father, an overseas Chinese. Although Yang Baolu was 13 years her senior and already had two children from a previous marriage, he was the only man she liked. However, Mila had a return ticket home. For the next four years, they wrote letters to each other, and despite being in two countries far away from each other, the seed of love had taken root and sprouted.

“He went after me first,” Mila said. In Netherlands, Mila is from an aristocratic family; which is why her family objected to her marrying a commoner – in China of all places – when she returned to Beijing in 1960.

When asked how their love sustained for so long, Mila answered, “I have thought about this question for half of century. I think there is no reason to explain true love, right?”

Yang nodded and started tearing up with emotion.