On March 31 a baby girl was born in a Tianjin, a city of 8 million people in the north of China. A few months later, a baby boy was born in Grande Prarie, a town of 20,000 in the north of Canada.
The girl was named Ye Nie, the second choice of her relatives who had favored Shan Shan–a name that stuck with her all her life. The boy was name Ryan, the second choice of his father, who favored Jaberikiah. Fortunately that name didn’t have quite the same stickiness.
From the beginning, young Shan Shan was a survivor. As the only surviving twin of a premature birth, she was very weak and depended heavily on the delicate care of her mother and father. Although born perfectly healthy and even a bit late, Ryan also tempted fate as a newborn having been forgotten by his mother in a Radio Shack only days after his arrival in his new family.
As a Chinese child in the 80’s, Shan Shan lived in a complex with all her neighbors and shared a bed with 4 family members. Back in Canada, Ryan also lived in relatively simple circumstances, in a banana box in his parents closet.
Shan Shan has fond memories of her childhood, the earliest of which is of reciting poetry to her parents as a two year old. Ryan too, recalls fond memories of his parents, the earliest of which is of his father chasing a cat out of the house with a ukulele.
In accordance with Chinese law, Shan Shan grew up as an only child, although she enjoyed the company of her cousin Yi Zheng, who lived with her in her house. In accordance with Momon law, Ryan was promptly joined by 4 siblings, and enjoyed the company of dozens of neighborhood kids who also seemed to live in his house.
Ryan always had a fondness for business, setting up his first company “Reliable Ryan” when he was just 10 years old. However, Shan Shan didn’t find business quite as natural, as her fear of customers often had her telling people that her family tailor shop no longer produced clothing.
Shan Shan excelled in school as one of the top students, and even as an elementary school student she aspired to become an author. Ryan also made an impact at elementary school, flooding every one of the boy’s the toilets on his last day and subsequently getting his first (unpaid) summer job as a school janitor.
In school, Shan Shan began to take an interest in English, and dreamed of going to Canada. She began to use the name “Nicole” because her original name “Ye Nie” was very rare and uneasy for English speakers to pronounce. Ryan, on the other hand, realized his name was a bit too common in English when he found himself in a class where almost half of the male students shared the same name. Soon after he made the dramatic name change from “Ryan” to “Rian”.
Throughout highschool, both Nicole and Rian were very progressive with their appearance. Shan Shan used so much anti-aging eye cream that the skin around her eyes became permenantly spotted. Rian’s skin around his face was also often spotted with leftover hair dye of whatever color (or colors) he had dumped in that particular week.
As a student Rian stood out as a dedicated participant of the “rave” culture. Nicole, also dedicated to popular culture in her own country, held a leadership position in Communist Party of China.
In 2003, when Rian was passing through Hong Kong, the two 23 year olds first came to be in the same country. They never met, however, since Nicole was still 2000 km away locked into her dormitory, unable to leave on account of a SARS outbreak.
5 years later, Rian returned to China and the two were in the same country once again. This time, Rian lived there much longer, and on occasion came within a short train ride of Nicole. Still the two never met.
The next summer Rian moved back to his home in Victoria to finish his business degree at UVic. Nicole followed months later to the same university to do her Masters in Education.
It was weeks later, at UVic, that Rian met Nicole.
Their first date was dinner and a movie. Having the enjoyed the evening, Nicole invited Rian to ask her out again, which he did the next day.
The following Monday they, they carved pumpkins together and talked about their life and their dreams, and Rian invited Nicole to plan the next date.
Nicole scheduled that date to be 3 weeks later and opted for a more traditional late afternoon coffee at the Moka House. Having discovered throughout life that he needed to live by the principal of persistence rather than principal of hint-taking, Rian reminded Nicole regularly of the date through subtle MSN messages.
After surviving their births on opposite sides of the earth, nearly crossing paths on one side of the world then meeting on the other, and 3 patient weeks waiting for coffee at the Moka House, Nicole and Rian fell in love.
On July 1st, 2009, Rian proposed to Nicole on the rooftop of his office during the Canada Day fireworks. We hope you can come to celebrate with us at 3:30pm on July3, 2010 at the Whistle Stop Bed & Breakfast at Shawnigan Lake.
