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Irish student wins ‘My Chinese Love Story’ contest
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Irish music student Annie Sutton, who won the Hangzhou Tourism Commission’s Facebook campaign, was given a whole page in The New York Times to tell her love story on Valentine’s Day.
The page includes photos of Sutton and her boyfriend David Carey, as well as their story written by Sutton, as the top prize in the “My Chinese Love Story” Facebook campaign initiated by the Hangzhou Tourism Commission in December.
The campaign encouraged couples, families and friends around the globe to express their heartfelt love stories online.
Up to 2,900 participants from all over the world sent their stories. The story about Sutton and her boyfriend stood out because “it caught our attention as a simple yet completely wonderful love story,” said He Yixing, director of the Hangzhou Tourism Image Promotion Center.
Sutton, 21, is finishing her last year at University College Cork in Ireland. Hesitant at first about pursuing a music degree, she said she would never have imagined meeting a fellow music student that turned out to be her soulmate.
What Sutton said started off as an innocent friendship slowly blossomed into a beautiful romance that has lasted for three years.
The two lovebirds share more than their love — they both have an insatiable passion for music. They are excited about what life has in store for them and hope to continue composing music, and to discover new things together, Sutton said.
“The music we make together is an everlasting entity of our relationship. No matter what happens to us in our lives, we will always be bound by the music we have made and still have to make together. And I think that is wonderful,” Sutton wrote in their story.
He said: “This is the touching story that we were looking for. We hope it will inspire men and women to seek loving, respectful and passionate relationships like this one.”
In a video Sutton made to thank the campaign, she showed an “amazing” album of their photos her boyfriend made for Christmas. She told him it was “really thoughtful that you showed me how much we have done together,” she said in the video.
Also Sutton said that since “everyone reads The New York Times, it’s good that they know how much I love you.”
The rest of the participants will have the chance to receive a postcard with scenes of Hangzhou.
Sutton also took part in the “Be the Modern Marco Polo” program. That campaign is searching for Hangzhou’s next “ambassador,” a foreigner and an explorer with the ability to grasp the essence of Hangzhou’s cultures and share it with the rest of the world.
The campaign included such parts as My Travel Gear, Hangzhou Challenge, My Chinese Name, My Chinese Menu and My Chinese Costume.
The person selected will win 40,000 euros (US$54,859) as the official ambassador of Hangzhou along with a 15-day trip to Hangzhou.
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