Zimbabwean Woman Causes Stir as Chinese TV News Anchor

A 28-year-old Zimbabwean International Relations & Diplomacy graduate has made waves in China after becoming the first African news presenter on Chinese Mainland, and perhaps the whole of Asia last year.

Vimbayi Kajese, 28, first visited China in 2004 and then moved there permanently in 2006, making Beijing her new home.


^ Vimbayi at work on CCTV-9 (Picture: CCTV).

Vimbayi now works as the early morning news presenter at CCTV-9, the English Channel of China Central Television. Her bright smile, eloquent diction and elegant demeanour have impressed millions of TV viewers and internet users around the world.

Feedback from online comments show just how much of a spectacle Vimbayi’s appointment is. One reader wrote: “Hello. Am Kenyan. Truly am impressed by your work. I get bored watching BBC news sometimes and to listen to a second opinion I turn to CCTV. Today I wasn’t sure if I was on the right channel. A woman of my colour doing some very good work. Anyway wanted to tell you keep it up…”

Another fan writes; "I love you hairstyle very much. Thank you for beautiful voice that make me happy everyday." And another; "Hi sister Kajese, always feel great to see you on air. I'm so proud of you...."

While doing her first degree in the United States, Vimbayi applied for and received a scholarship for an all-expenses-paid trip to China. It was on this trip, in 2004, that she first fell in love with the country. She was fascinated by the culture, the food and of course the people, who reminded her of Africa more than the Americans had.




^ Vimbayi Kajese- news anchor and fashionista (Pictures: CCTV and Vimbayi FB profile).

After completing her undergraduate degree, she chose to leave the United States and pursue a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy at the China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) in Beijing. After graduating from CFAU, Vimbayi decided to stay in China and got a job working for Reuters TV. It was months later that she applied to work for CCTV-9 and much later that she got accepted.

While China is her new home, Vimbayi is keen to remind people that there is more to Africa than the jungle, heat and adventure.

She told CCTV during an interview; “You know, people normally associate Africa with wild life and the safaris. But the true essence of Africa that I’d like to stress first and foremost is the people. Unfortunately, through the one-dimensional lens of the media, we the people have been relegated to the background of the wild life spectacle.

“The real adventure and beauty of Africa is through engagement with us the people; understanding our vastness in terms of cultural, religious and racial diversity; it's too grand to be summed up in a few words, let alone be represented by one person and or one nation alone.”

The multi-talented Vimbayi has also done a number of fashion shoots including for Rolling Stone China and the other publications. She is the editor of Charitarian Magazine Africa-China and the public relations officer and media counsellor for Young African Professionals and Students (YAPS), an organisation whose aim is to create a platform to position young Africans in China as active participants in the development of Africa-China relations

If she can speak Mandarin, that would take the public even more by storm.

Glad to see this story.

Eh she whatever, in one of her interview she stated that she doesnt date Chinese men, why even bother settle in china if you have that kind of mentality.

And this on a forum where people say white people should stop dating Asians. Should only Chinese women willing to date white men move to America, Canada and the UK?

africans are cool. always multilingual

I'm just saying if u have no attraction to Asian men, why the he'll are u doing in that country when it's 99.9999% Asian men, and it wasnt me that said white people should stop dating Asians. there's also a high percentage of Chinese population in the countries u stated.

Whatever and whoever she wants to date is very personal. It should not cause a bother to anyone. Dating and man-woman affair is a lot more intimate and 'physical' than living in an environment. She is a pretty woman.

She likes Chinese culture. Why is her dating life even an issue?

If she isn't willing to date a chinese man, then she doesn't truly "like" chinese culture in my opinion. I know liking a guy has nothing to do with the culture but it just seems like her liking chinese culture is some how.... incomplete.

I'd never move to an almost homogeneous country if I'm not attracted to the women there. I can't fathom how she's willing to do that.

Who knows. Give her some time. I've seen it happen before. Also, I think women are different from men in that regard. Women are less visual than men.

However, I don't think I'd be able to move to an almost homogeneous country where I'm not interested in the women, either.

Good! It'd be nice to see more Africans outside of commercials and in mainstream Asian tv treated as normal people.

only a mindless pinhead do not realize that racism affects people's wishes for who they will date. it's only naive knuckle dragging brainwashed chimps like faydabakery that have been so brainwashed by the media that he is essentially a slave to the devil.

Can you imagine if a Chinese man was on an African news TV and had said that he refused to date Black women? He would be run out of the country he was in. The Chinese are some of the most tolerant people in the world and it's stuff like this that proves it.

She does speak a bit of Chinese.

She seems to like her stay and seems to be enjoying her time in China.

How do I know all this ?

Well, by coincidence, I watched a segment on YouTube some time back, and she was on it :

The Africa Niche




Yea.....thats the interview that you're talking about.....

But I think thats understandable......
She said there is still some cultural gap / distance.....




Click the link above.
It's not so severe like what you think.
Normal.

Would you say the same thing for Asians living in predominatly white countries???

Yeah, it didn't look that bad at all. The person I responded to probably exaggerated.

If she likes Chinese culture and is willing to abide by Chinese law she's more than welcome to make China her new home.

i've always wondered why al jazeera seems to hire tons of white people.

and russia today has no russian anchors.

if they are not hired, can they be sold well in us, can, europe ...?!

You are obviously the bigger pinhead who needs to travel the world more because you're unable to grasp interracial dating. Go back to your racist hell.

Predominately country mostly has a small percentage of Asians even though it is predominately white where China is 100% homogenous population.

Well some people would argue that that it is a good thing.

I was asking Gideon.

Regardless China is not 100% homogenous. 55 (give or take) ethnic minority groups in China.
There are also non "Asian" minority groups in China whose desecendents are Russian. Indians I'm not 100% certain so I wont say.

(Interesting to note. There are also Chinese ethnic descendent minority group in India (I actually know someone who is). )

Well as Micc said you will find wayy more asians in any white country compared to blacks in China. Anyways lets ignore that.

My comment was stated because she moved there because she loved the culture. Almost every person I know who loves a culture, lets say a guy loving korean culture through exposure to kpop will always want to date the women. So her stating she loves the culture yet is unwilling to date the men is so strange to me. So I would not say the same thing for Asians living in a white country because they didn't move there because they "love the culture". Asians who move to white countries move to achieve a better life because opportunities are easier to find/achieve.

But lets ignore what I've said again and say that an asian person moved to sweden cuz she liked the culture. If she didn't want to date the men, yes I would say the same thing.

Only a moron can't understand this has nothing to do with interracial dating but racist preferences.

Did a black girl break your heart or something. So sad for you. You obviously have no understanding of women or dating preferences. Just because she doesn't prefer Chinese in China doesn't mean she's racist. Why don't you enlighten me with your brilliance if you're so smart.

Total agreement.

I'd like to see an actual quote about her saying she'd never date a Chinese guy.

Article is from Monday, 22 November 2010.
http://www.zimbojam.com/component/content/...comment_id=5965

He means racially, there is no racial difference between Han, Manchu and Zhuang just as there is no racial difference between English and Scottish people.

In fact China is also ethnically homogenous, with about 90% Han, in many European nations the main ethnic group is below 90%, and that is after two world wars, millions dead and numerous ethnic cleansing programs(the last was in the Balkans in the 1990s.)

90% I would not consider homogenous (100% would be). btw I am aware that the population is around 90% Han.
As I also said there are also descendents of white Russians in China. There also may be Indian decendents as well.

There are a number of wealthy families from HK who moved to Canada where I am.

What about non Asians moving to China for better life and opportunities?
Or Chinese populations in Indonesia and Malaysia who dont want to assimilate into the cultures there?
Your thoughts?

Even Japan is not 100% Japanese, there are Ainus who are maybe white and Okinawas, but Japan will never allow mass immigration.

Canada, the US and Australia are lands of immigrants, they look at immigration differently because the land didn't belong to them (white people) in the first place.

But you can see that in Europe there is heavy opposition to immigration from non EU countries.






Just because there is 50 million German descendents in the US Germany should allow that anybody can come to Germany?

Of course not, they are closed for most immigrants and that is why their population will fall to 70 million by 2050, but they already know that is better than having even more Turks in their country.

The British will became a minority in their land by 2060s, and the polls show that the majority of white British oppose immigration and they don't want to became minority in their land, but according to your retarded logic it is OK to have millions of Muslims and Indians there because there are already English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish native ethnic groups there so a few new ethnic groups does not matter.

Countries can not function properly if there is not one dominant ethnic group, and the more homogeneous the country is the better it is functioning.

In the US 95% of black people voted for Barrack Obama while most whites voted for Mccain(other minorities such as Hispanics also voted for Obama, I am sure when there will be some Hispanic candidate that 95% of Hispanics will vote for him/her. That is why multiracial/too diverse countries without one dominant ethnic group don't function and sometimes fall apart.

Here is the US election votes in 2008 by race:http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/resul...ls/#val=USP00p1

Just shows how multiculturalism works

Your response is not even relevent to what I am asking Gideon.


(not that I have anything against Gideon or anything)

What are you talking about? Multiculturalism worked. 57% of white the white population voted for McCain. That left 43% that voted for Obama. The rest were minority votes for Obama and he won. The white guy lost the election. Is it really hard to grasp that sometimes people vote based on the person themselves?

And with regards to other comments in the room about her being racist. How many Asians love hip hop but don't want to date a black woman? I guess that means all those Asians are racist too, right?

First of all, China is crowded and the housing price is skyrocketing, so it is pointless to allow immigrants in adding more oil to the fire right?




I had this discussion on Chinadaily forum, you can go read it over there. (Multiculturalism has failed, says...says French president/UK Prime Minister/German Chancellor http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.ph...extra=page%3D1) (New German minister: Islam does not belong in Germany http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.ph...extra=page%3D1)

just look at TIMSS, PISA and SAT scores by race. Only Asians and Whites have good results there, it is pretty obvious that the US is over, it is to became the next Brazil or it is going to fall apart.

The thing is, nations such as Australia, Canada, and the US are not "origin countries". They were lands stolen from the natives, hence the very core foundation of these nations are of multi racialism. Other places are not founded as a multinational country. China is a country for Chinese, Korea is a country for Koreans, and so on. Yes, one would argue that "wait, but don't these countries have minority groups as well?" Well, most of the people there are already close genetically or appearance wise. What's more is that the concept of a nation is a relatively new concept history-wise. If a group wasn't there before the founding of a nation, they would always be outsiders. Imagine if China starts having white or black politicians within its government. The idea is simply inconceivable. They are raised with a different viewpoint. Furthermore, race would always influence you no matter how you were raised. If China starts becoming multi national, then it would no longer be China for the Chinese but China for every race under the sun.

Brazil has smart people! One of the smartest girls in my geography class back in primary school came from Brazil, an A-student with dark skin from Rio de Janeiro. I met a really bright professor (unfortunately working as a tour guide to make ends meet) when I visited the Amazon too--very dark skin and he kept joking about how he'd vanish into the shadows if we took a photo of him. My tourguide in Rio was also a professor who looked very Portugese.

Also if you had been there and seen the megaengineering they do, you might think differently about their latent abillities. I was seriously impressed by their ingenuity..blasting tunnels through granite mountains, building huge roundabouts to slow down cars as they went down steep mountains.... coming up with all kinds of unusual medical and consumer applications for forest products from the amazon.

You know they use cheap ethanol for their boats right? You could be sailing down a river and there's a floating barge selling diesel or ethanol--ethanol is cheaper but it doesn't last as long, and so you have an interesting choice.... They're some of the more clever, inegenious, and "creative" people I've met. They find ways to do new things with very little money and crumbling infrastructure--just imagine what they could do if they had the right tools. I think you have a misconception about Brazilians.

I don't know if US is over yet.
But Asians' prominent presence at http://www.societyforscience.org/STS and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Science_Olympiad is unbelievable!

Have you guys ever question why countries like Australia, Canada, Brazil, US are going for multiculturalism?
They're doing this to weaken land/title claims from natives, and to hide their past atrocities made to natives as well.
Within this century, Australia, Brazil, Canada and U.S will completely become multicultural and virtually no natives will be able to claim their lands/culture/history back.

That's true. Although, before these countries became a nation, they were multicultural already. The ruling majority, i.e. white people had no choice but make these countries multinational because these countries were found as such.

WHAAAAAAAAA...... There are so few natives in those countries (except Brazil) to take much of anything back. Of the ones you mentioned, Australia and Brazil need to do the most work though. Its more justified in Brazil due to logistical problems in the Amazon; Australia has less of an excuse. There's a lot of places where Brazil just ignores the tribes in the rain forest, who fend for themselves and do whatever they want.

Interesting thoughts indeed! But all of the indigenous people are economically underpriviledged or politcally insignificant. How can they win their claims in legal systems controlled from head to toe by those "people" ?

In many places they already have won their claims though. Maybe because there are no unifed group of "people" singular ruling the governments--only individuals who form groups and you can reason with those individuals.

Thats not my point of what I was discussing with Gideon.
What if China wasnt crowded.



Heres the thread:
Gideon: If she isn't willing to date a chinese man, then she doesn't truly "like" chinese culture in my opinion.

Me: Would you say the same thing for Asians living in predominatly white countries???

Gideon: ... So I would not say the same thing for Asians living in a white country because they didn't move there because they "love the culture". Asians who move to white countries move to achieve a better life because opportunities are easier to find/achieve.

Me: ... What about non Asians moving to China for better life and opportunities?
Or Chinese populations in Indonesia and Malaysia who dont want to assimilate into the cultures there?
Your thoughts?

Gideon: (no response)

There's few individuals and group of natives trying to claim back their land/culture.
Good example is New Zealand's Maori's land claim court case.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/05/world/ne...and-claims.html

Australia's Mabo land claim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Mabo

I believe even Canadian natives tried similar claims on their ancestral lands.

Thanks for you input!

this is like she's talking to me. lol

in regard to multiculturalism in china, it already exists. but the proper word that will never work in china is multiracial culturalism. not in my lifetime, and i just don't see that in any forseeable future.

I highly doubt China will be multicultural in that sense.
There may be some immigrations but on a very small scale.

That thread was insanely long. lol. It went from Islamophobia to China, somehow the Saudis and the US got involved and then to woman's rights somehow. And in between all that were trolls and flaming. In any case, multiculturalism, imo, works but it takes a lot of time and effort. You can't change the minds of people overnight or in one generation of people. Terrorism complicates things a great deal but isn't a deal breaker. There are always underlying causes and factors that can be dealt with involving terrorism. Anyway, this is getting way off topic. lol.




I agree.