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Two years ago Neneh Ada Yang knew nothing about China, but today her talent for Chinese art impresses even masters in the field. "I`m very proud that I might be the only African that can paint Chinese art," she says with a smile, sitting in her Beijing art studio surrounded by paintings of trees, flowers and towering mountains.
两年前，爱达•杨对中国一无所知，但如今她在中国艺术方面所展现出来的天赋已令许多大师级人物刮目相看。“我可能是唯一一个会画中国画的非洲人，这令我感到自豪。”她坐在自己位于北京的艺术工作室里微笑着说道，工作室四周满是山水画，从花草树木到层峦叠嶂。
The 26-year-old, who couldn`t understand any Chinese when she arrived in China in 2011, is now skilled in several traditional Chinese art forms, including Peking Opera, calligraphy and the seven-stringed guqin.
26岁的爱达•杨2011年初到中国时根本不懂中文，但现在的她却精通多门中国传统艺术，其中包括京剧、书法和古琴。
But her specialty is in traditional Chinese painting. Some of her work has been good enough to be exhibited in the National Museum of China.
但她的专长是国画。她的一些精美画作甚至成功地在中国国家博物馆展出。
Many people come to China in search of the exotic, but for Yang it was a relationship with Chinese landscape painter Yang Yan, who visited Africa in April 2011, that brought her to the country.
很多人来中国寻找异国情调，但对爱达•杨而言，她与中国结缘却始于一段恋情。2011年四月，她与赴非旅游的中国山水画家杨彦相识相恋，最终来到中国。
"I was a third-year college student learning business administration in Sierra Leone," she says. "The only thing I knew about China was the kung fu star Jackie Chan, whom I had seen in movies."
“当时我还是一名在塞拉利昂攻读商业管理专业的大三学生，”她说，“对于中国，我唯一知道的是功夫明星成龙，我看过好多部他的电影。”
Yang and Yang Yan met through friends and soon fell for each other, even though they did not speak a common language.
爱达•杨和杨彦经由朋友介绍相识，尽管语言不通，但仍然无法阻止他们迅速坠入爱河。
For the 55-year-old Yang Yan, it was a romance he`d been waiting for 20 years after seeing a sculpture of an African girl. When he saw Yang, instinct told him this was the woman he`d been waiting for.
对于55岁的杨彦来说，这是一段等了20年的恋情。20年前，一座非洲女孩的雕塑深深印在他的脑海中；20年后，当爱达•杨出现时，直觉告诉他这就是自己一直等待的女人。
The two got married in Sierra Leone a month after meeting and Yang followed her husband to China without telling her family. It was a bold move for her and not without challenges.
他们二人认识一个月后便在萨拉利昂结了婚，爱达•杨在没有告诉家人的情况下随丈夫来到中国。对她而言，这是一个大胆而冒险的举动。
"I talked to my friends and realized that there are big differences between my country and China - language, culture and climate. But I know when you go to any place, you need to respect their culture, so I decided to follow what people do here," says Yang, who now speaks fluent Chinese.
爱达•杨用一口流利的中文说道：“我和朋友们聊天，然后意识到中非之间有很大的差异——语言、文化、气候皆不相同。但我知道不管去向何处，都需要尊重当地的文化。所以我决定入乡随俗。”
She was surprised to discover her husband was a painter when she saw his studio.
当她来到杨彦工作室时，她才惊喜地发现原来自己的丈夫是位画家。
"I see him painting every day," she says. "Mr Yang is that kind of person. When you see him painting, you want to paint. When he paints, he puts all his attention, his effort, his love into it, which can be very infectious."
“我看到他天天在作画，”她说，“杨彦是那种你看他画，就也想跟着画的人。他画画时，将全部注意力、精力、以及情感都沉浸其中，极具感染力。”
When Yang Yan left his desk, Yang picked up the brushes and began to paint mango trees - common in her hometown - using different colors and brush strokes to show how they looked at various stages of growth.
当杨彦离开画桌后，爱达•杨便拿起画笔，开始画自己家乡随处可见的芒果树。她用不同的颜色和画笔来展现出芒果树各个生长阶段。
At the end of the 2011, she held her first exhibition. Since then, Yang`s art has been shown on many occasions, including at the China-Africa People`s Forum, and has been bought by both collectors and galleries.
2011年年末，她举办了首次个人画展。从那时起，爱达•杨的画作便在包括中非人民论坛在内的许多活动中亮相，一些收藏家和画廊更是买下她的作品。
What stands out in her work, Yang Yan believes, is its innocence and purity.
杨彦认为，正是画中的那份朴实与纯粹令她的作品出类拔萃。
"She can be very focused and expresses everything in the scene she paints, which is very precious. To her, art is only art; it has no connections with anything else," he says.
“她能够非常专注地在作品中表达一切，这十分难得。对她而言，艺术就是艺术，与其他任何事情无关。”杨彦评价说。
Yang and her husband have collaborated on some artwork, including on a series of paintings of plum-mango trees. On the treetops there are plum blossoms, while on the trunks there are mangos. This series of work was sold to African embassies and Chinese museums.
爱达•杨夫妇联手创作了一些作品，其中包括一系列以梅花和芒果树为主题的画作。树上开的是梅花，结的却是芒果。这一系列作品被非洲大使馆和中国博物馆买下收藏。
"Chinese people like plum blossom, which symbolizes integrity and nobility, characteristics that are admired in Chinese culture, while mango symbolizes Africa. This creative idea is very refreshing," Yang Yan says.
杨彦说：“中国人喜欢梅花，它象征着中华文明所崇尚的正直和高贵；而芒果则象征着非洲。这个创意非常新颖。”
Yang adds, "Chinese painting is like a spirit for me now."
爱达•杨补充道：“现在，中国画就是我的灵魂寄托。”
