An Iraqi man who escaped war and now lives in China has shared his love for Chinese cuisine with millions of fans and calls the country his “paradise”.
Ahmed Mohammed Jaber Alkalthoom, 30, comes from a wealthy Iraqi family and has two younger sisters.
After the Iraq War broke out in 2003, his family fled their hometown and moved to Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
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“During heavy shelling, my parents hid my sisters and myself in the refrigerator to save us,” Alkalthoom told a mainland media outlet.
He added that a missile once exploded less than 300 metres away, rupturing his eardrum.
In 2014, with the support of relatives, Alkalthoom relocated to northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region and started working as an Arabic teacher at an international school.
Determined to integrate into Chinese society, he taught himself Mandarin and learned 108 Chinese characters in three months.
Within a year, he could communicate in Mandarin fluently and had adopted the Chinese name Wang Lixuan.
Before becoming a food influencer last year, Alkalthoom was also an actor and model in China.
His humour, charm, and spot-on Mandarin food reviews have earned him more than 10 million fans on mainland social media.
On a trip to the southwestern province of Sichuan, the country’s spicy capital, Alkalthoom tried Sichuanese barbecue, or chuanchuan.
Struggling with the heat of the food, he joked to the server in Mandarin: “It feels like all the chilli peppers are meeting to plot my demise!”
In Changsha, while enjoying chopped chilli fish head, he said: “It is like I just kissed the fish,” to the amusement of many netizens.
Wherever he goes, Alkalthoom runs into excited fans who insist on paying for his meals, and he returns the kindness by buying them fruit and drinks.
From beef noodles in northern China’s Inner Mongolia to hot dry noodles in the central city of Wuhan, his food adventures span much of the country and have racked up over 3.5 billion views on mainland social media.
However, the scars of war still haunt him.
Once, while eating in Wuhan, the sound of a noodle chef slapping dough startled him and his family, making them duck under the table, thinking it was gunfire.
On another occasion, Alkalthoom panicked at the sound of firecrackers while dining at a barbecue stall in Henan, central China, and said in a video: “I thought it was a bomb.”
The video attracted more than 650,000 likes on a major social media platform, with many viewers reassuring him: “Do not worry, you are in China now. You are safe.”
Reflecting on his journey, Alkalthoom said: “The old me already ‘died’ on Earth. Now, I am living my next life in paradise, China.”
His social media biography reflects his philosophy: “After experiencing the pain of life and death, I truly cherish the peace and stability I’ve found in China.”
One online observer wrote: “It is always ordinary people who suffer from the war. I am happy you’ve found a new life in China. I hope you enjoy it here!”
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