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Chinese Itzik Comes to Israel

(Tablet) Matti Friedman - The most prominent face of China in Israel belongs to Xi Xiaoqi, 35, known here as Chinese Itzik. He stars in hundreds of internet videos about life in Israel from a Chinese perspective, and about life in China made accessible for Israelis. Some of these appear on his own YouTube channel, but sometimes he appears on Israeli outlets, where journalists are delighted to have a Chinese figure who speaks perfect, slangy Hebrew. He'd never met a Jew or heard a word of Hebrew before arriving at university at age 18. His grandfather told him that Jews were smart. Everyone thinks this in China, he said. So he started learning Hebrew in Beijing with an Israeli teacher and then at Tel Aviv University. In 2009, he was selected to run the Hebrew desk at China Radio International, which doesn't actually broadcast radio, only videos. The writer was an AP reporter in Jerusalem between 2006 and 2011.
2022-01-13 00:00:00
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